Octavia's Notebook

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Session 0

Dear Notebook,

This story is not for the Elder, or for anyone else in that matter. Not for as long as I live at least. This notebook is just for me! :)

So who am I. My name is Octavîa and I live in the Ark, just like all other 232 231. When I was younger The Elder made me a Chronicler, he saw something in me as youngest person in the Ark. He learned me how to read and write, told me about the Ark and its people, and now I'm writing down the tales of the Ark.

I want to help the People, I always wanted that. That's why I became a Bonesaw. I learned the basics from Olîas, but he is no longer with us :'( The !@#$% Rot got him, like it got so many. One day I'm going to cure it, I'm sure of it! That's what I was already thinking for 5 years, but never did I dare to set a foot outside of the Ark. I was not going to ignore the Elder's warnings, the Rot is out there! But still, inside the Ark I will never find a cure.

This all changed when my mutation appeared. Somehow I got insensitive to the Rot, and one time I even spit it out! Luckily I didn't hit anyone, I think that would've hurt. But this gave me the courage to go out there together with Tesla!!

Who she is? She is the best girl in the world! We are already best friends and roommates for as long as I can remember!

Sometimes she can be a bit sad about how things are going in the Ark, but I always manage to cheer her up! She is so cool and is never afraid for what's out there! And now, sometimes, she allows me to go with her out into the Zone!

Oh, and Tesla is also the one that found you, dear notebook, and brought you to me <3

Here some other people that are important in my life:

• Ruby is beautiful and great and whenever I need something I know she can get it!
• Lincoln is a little scary sometimes and is a boss. But he is nice to me and I always help him if anyone of his gang is injured. He got the most interesting things happening to him, not always good things, but still, I think he will make a great story and I will make sure that I write it down!
• Rianna is also a friend, she is strong and can get angry quickly, but never to me. I've stitched her up a lot. While doing that I learned her how to do it herself.
• Bolt knows a lot and can make anything with scrap, but he doesn't understand the stories around it.
• Finn is a friend of Lincoln, that's how I know him. The best part of him is his dog! I love that dog! <3

Lately things are going worse in the Ark, we are running out of resources, factions are forming. People are killed for no reason at all, like Sarah. Some people are even worse than the Rot.

Oh, and talking about bad people, never listen to what Silas tells, his stories are fake and are making Harper look like a hero instead of the ruffian he is!

So that's who I am. And I'm going to cure the Rot, fix our resources problem and unite the Ark! Well... maybe not alone... I'll contribute to it at least! Lets keep hope, we can do it!

That's it for now, more stories will follow I'm sure of it. But be patient dear notebook, stories need time to happen...

Speak to you soon!

Octavía

Session 1

Dear Notebook,

Time for an update from me. I had an exciting day today! First some backstory, since I'm didn't tell you this yet. The Ark's water basin got contaminated :( I'm not sure if it's the Rot or not, but the water is green, which is not good.

14 days ago Lincoln decided it was time to do something about it. He send Ruby, Ava, Finley and Felix out in search of the Pure Plant. The stories are that it has an endless supply of clean water!!!

So yeah, I miss seeing Ruby, and the worst thing is, they are still not back! They should be back now for sure. I'm worried...

Apparently I am not the only one. This morning Lincoln asked me to join this group he is leading that goes looking for them. It includes Tesla! The others are Rianna, Bolt, Garrett, Flux and Finn.

Well, I didn't say no, so here I am in the middle of the Zone! We did see some awesome things today, but no sign of Ruby. Let me explain what we saw by using this map. K-16 is the sector where the Ark is. First we went to sector J-17, which is to the North-West.

Sector J-17:
Tesla quickly found a path through this sector, she even found some grub! It looked Rot-contaminated but I'll have a better look at it later. Maybe we can make it work.

In the middle of the sector there was a big stone building with a huge pointy spire! Inside there were rotten wooden benches and a lot of rubble. Behind a big table there was a cross with a half-naked Ancient on it. Let me draw it:

I heard tales about places like this. A place where the Ancients talked to their boss in the sky!

Tesla wanted to go into the spire to get a good view of the surroundings, which I thought was a great idea! It would really help us find the safest paths through the Zone. The others joined her except me, Flux and Garrett. Bolt tried to join them, but didn't manage to climb up there. He started to gather scrap on the base floor instead. He found a weird yellow metal dish and some mechanic that could move when you turned a small iron key. So nothing useful interesting.

A few minutes later I found a huge notebook! It had drawings of the half-naked man etched on the outside. Was he the boss in the sky? But why on a cross? It didn't make sense at all. On the inside there were letters I recognized, but they were not forming words. Let me show you what was in there: "In principio creavit Deus caelum et terram". Makes no sense, right? Lets bring it to the vault, maybe others can use it.

After waiting a bit the rest of the group finally came down. Tesla shared what she saw in the surrounding sectors. I-17 had a another big building with a cross on it. I-18 had an open area with a fence around it. In the middle there was a structure from metal tubes connected with chains and ladders. I-16 had a lot of huge bushes with some paths in between, but it was hard to see if that area was safe. We decided to go to I-17 in the North!

Sector I-17:
The building which Tesla saw looked different compared to the spire. The cross was reddish and had another shape, like this:

Inside it was crazy! There were so many skeletons! A lot of rooms, and in them beds with more skeletons! Skeletons in the hallways, skeletons everywhere! When looking closer to one it became clear that these were skeletons from ancients. I even saw some very small ones, not much longer then my arm! What happened here? They all died? And none of them were buried like in the stories?

A bit further we noticed a metal door which was slightly ajar. There was a weird symbol painted on it ->

A terrible smell came from the room, and some barrels in there were leaking a black-green liquid on the floor. There was a weird yellow suit on a metal standard. This place smelled and looked Rot-contaminated!

Against my warnings Rianna and Bolt entered the room and quickly grabbed the yellow suit. They came out coughing. The air in there hurt their breathing! But Bolt was thinking that the suit could provide protection against the Rot and had no regrets going in there.

It was starting to get dark outside, so we looked for a place to spend the night. We found a room on the 4th floor which looked safe and is easy to guard. We agreed on the following watch order:

1. Tesla
2. Bolt
3. Rianna
4. Flux (and Finn)
5. Lincoln
6. Garrett
7. Me!

I'm going to bed now, rest is important! Let's hope we find Ruby and the others quickly and alive. Goodnight sweet Notebook!

Octavía

Session 2

Hi my lovely dry Notebook!

Last night I didn't sleep very well. I was rudely awoken in the middle of the night by shouting. It was Rianna! I looked around and only saw Bolt. Through the darkness we quickly ran towards the noise downstairs. The only light was coming from an oil lantern on the floor.

The others were there. I heard Flux howling in pain and saw some shadows in the hallway around him, poor dog! Who were these attackers? Zone-Ghouls? I inspired Lincoln the beat the !@%$# out of them, they would not stop our journey to safe Ruby and the others! With the help of Rianna and Bolt they managed to kill all 5 Zone-Ghouls!

After I had a look at Flux to make sure he was fine, I finally dared to get a little closer to the (dead) Zone-Ghouls. They really were as ugly, stinking, wretched, skinny, short, ugly and terrifying as in the stories. Also I heard about Lincoln's mutation in the past, but seeing how he started to eat their corpses almost made me throw up (barf!). At least it saved us some grub... I tried to get back to sleep, but I had a restless night...

Sector H-18:
This morning I noticed the first effects of the Rot. Some of us were coughing and scratching, but nothing to worry about yet... We travelled to the sector in the North-East, where the surroundings started to change. Less ruins and more water.

First small puddles and mud paths, later they became larger and it was harder to walk around. All smelling, dirty and some with mist above them. Better avoid those! I'm glad we had Tesla: She managed to find a path through that sector!

Sector G-18:
Next we decided to go North where it was less wet. Tesla found some bottles of clean water and 2 cans of contaminated grub.

I have the contaminated grub in my backpack and am planning to try one tomorrow. To see how bad it is, at least I should be able to handle it, I don't want to feed the others Rot. Maybe I can try to prepare it in a way that will reduce the Rot... like... heating it above a fire for a long time? hmm...

Then suddenly Tesla raised her hand! Far in the distance we saw a large grey creature. If I was not mistaken that could be a Devourer as from the Elder's stories! Bolt told us it hungers for flesh! Best to avoid! Tesla guided us in a very long and safe path around it.

Sector F-19:
We should be starting to get close to Pure Plant location now. And indeed, soon we saw a huge river that was a few hundred meters wide. In the middle of it there was an island with huge metal barrels at least 20 meters high! And next to it a even higher tower! Could this be the Pure Plant? Let's hurry, Ruby might be there! <3

I noticed Lincoln looking for signs of them, and I ran over there to encourage him! But by accident I stood in the tracks. Lincoln looked very angry at me :'( It was never my intention to ruin it, but now I had to make it up with him someway later... I don't want him to be angry at me...

The river didn't look deep at the edge, it had algae but didn't smell bad. It felt like there was less Rot around here. While Bolt started searching scrap to build a raft, Lincoln found a stick to poke the river bottom and went into the river. It turned out it not to be deep, and we could wade through it!

I followed the others and made sure my backpack containing you, dear notebook, was kept dry above my head! Bolt followed a little later since he was distracted as always by his raft-building. On the other side Lincoln found tracks of people and a dog! Could it be from Tank, Felix his dog?

I made sure I stayed back and didn't ruin the tracks this time, while complimenting Lincoln on his great achievement! From there Flux could follow the tracks! After a short walk there was an area where the tracks went into all directions. And after some more investigation it turned out that the tracks of 3 people went towards the right (where did the 4th go?), and the dog tracks went towards the left.

Finn heard a dog sound, and decided to let Flux follow the dog tracks to the left...

-XXX-

Octavía

Session 3

Sweet Notebook,

Let's continue. Flux was following the dog tracks. They passed a huge round basin with green and dirty water in it (so far no endless supply of clean water...).

Huge pipes ended above the basin, and from one of them more dirty water flowed. There was a sign with a skull next to it. It looked handmade and didn't fit in with the rest of this area.

We continued towards the huge tower when Flux suddenly stopped! There was a creature in the fog. Lincoln yelled "Tank!" and the creature ran towards us. It was Tank, Felix' dog! He clearly wanted us to follow him and started to jump against the huge tower. What was up there? Felix? Maybe even Ruby?

The tower had no entrance, but there was a ladder attached to the side. Rianna and Tesla started to climb it. They are so brave, climbing on that old ladder on that high tower!

In the meanwhile Bolt couldn't wait for even a second minute and started to wander around looking for scrap. That could be dangerous so I tried to stop him, but I failed. I'm afraid that someday it will get him killed... He entered the building next to the dirty pool.

I looked back up, but it was hard to see Rianna and Tesla in the mist. It took ages, what were they doing? Then they yelled to us that they found Felix in some kind of nest? But he was dead...

Lincoln told them to get him down, so after we cleared the area they threw him from the tower. It landed with a loud thud.

Not long after we heard a screech in the distance. Something was coming... I quickly took cover in the same building Bolt was in. Inside there were loud noises and Bolt was pushing buttons and turning a big wheel. What was he doing? I told him to stop and that Rianna was in danger. But he was not easily distracted and told me Rianna could take care of herself.

Lincoln joined us dragging Felix' corpse. Another screech from outside! Luckily we saw Tesla and Rianna sliding down the rope. Tesla quickly took cover but Rianna stayed outside pulling on the rope. Suddenly the rope was coming to her, together with half the tower and the nest! She could barely jump aside in time!

She tried to loosen the rope. It was clear the rope was very important to her!

Then a huge bird appeared and attacked her, scratching Rianna with his claws. Finally Rianna managed to get the rope loose and took cover with us inside. We waited until it was quiet again and I bandaged Rianna's wounds.

Inside the building there was a huge metal grille in the floor. Beneath it was where the noise came from. Bolt and Lincoln wanted to open it but failed. Then the amazing Tesla remembered that she found a small blue notebook in the bird's nest. She brought it as a gift for me!

Most of the notes in it were unreadable because of the rain but I found one page that was not ruined.

It was written in blue, that must've been a special pencil! And it was talking about how the writer:

• Left the Ark and was going back to Eden! (Yes, Eden, from the stories!)
• Was being chased by Zone-Ghouls.
• Was looking for a lookout point.
• Was missing its children?! Was it an Ancient? An Ancient that left the Ark? This must be from long ago!
• Was attacked by Zone-Ghouls and they stole a keycard to Eden. (What would that "keycard" be? A card with a drawing of a key? A map?)
• It had this word "November" with a number besides it above every section. (A Name? A Day)

• At the corner of the paper there was a symbol and the text MIMIR. This was not ruined by the water and still readable on every page, like the lines on my notebook!

I explained this to the others, and Tesla told me she got it from a blue suit that was found on the remains of a female Ancient. The same symbol was on the suit, with the name "Mary" below it. So this must've been Mary's notes!

Felix' belongings were divided and we went to sleep. Lincoln asked me if he could have the last watch during the night. Not sure why, but after he started dragging Felix' body outside I got an feeling... I could understand, it was his way of saying goodbye, and having early breakfast...

During the night we were rudely awakened by Bolt. He kept screaming "Zone-Ghouls!". Rianna stormed outside, but it turned out there was nothing to see. Bolt kept describing a small creature afraid of the light that was covered in cloth like Zone-Ghouls. He told us it was saying: "Is anyone there?" in a clear voice. Tesla was sure this couldn't be a Zone-Ghoul, since they couldn't "talk" like us. So what could it have been?

I went back to sleep until I was woken by Garrett for my watch. He saw light in a building behind the tower. I had a quick look and indeed, there was light! Tomorrow we should go investigate that! Could it be Ruby? I miss her more every day! I hope she is safe...

After my watch I didn't sleep much anymore. Lincoln had breakfast and gathered wood from the nest to make a pyre with Felix on top. When the others were awake he spoke some words and lit the fire. I put one of the cans of contaminated grub in the fire to heat it.

I waited a bit and then tried the grub. It tasted different warm, less Rot taste than expected, but there was still Rot, that was clear. Maybe next time I should stir it, such that the heat spreads better... Or put it in longer...

Lincoln and Bolt wanted to open the grille and explore down there, but luckily I could convince Lincoln to go to the building with the light. It could be his crew, the reason we were here in the first place! Ruby!! <3

We found a door to enter the building, but it was locked and couldn't be forced open. But it was no problem for Bolt his acid spit! We entered a big hall, and in the distance we saw some shadows dart away...

More later...

Octavía

Session 4

Salutations Notebook!

It was dark in the building, the small windows at the top didn't let through much light. You could see some machines, tables, a staircase, some barrels.. But there was not much time to look around. After Lincoln asked "Who is there?" and it stayed silent, Rianna ran towards the staircase where we saw a few shadows disappear. Tesla, Lincoln and me went after her.

Upstairs was a hallway with rooms on each side. You could look inside them through broken windows. I saw a lot of cans in one room, maybe grub? The next rooms had bags on the floor in ordered patterns. Halfway the hallway we saw a nicer room.

It had a desk with an open book, a small metal box and an oil lamp. This must've been the room where we saw the light last night. But there was no time to investigate, there were creatures around here that could attack us at any moment!

When we arrived at the end of the hallway Rianna was already there. I heard chanting for one room and in the other dark room you could see 5 small creatures afraid in a corner. They were looking scared at Rianna. Before I could say anything Tesla was asking about Lutrell. Who? What did Tesla know? Lincoln grabbed one of them and pinned it against the wall. How could he! They were so afraid, and probably just children... but I guess they also looked like Zone-Ghouls, so strange...

I tried to calm Lincoln, but he didn't listen. I approached one of the creatures and tried to explain that we were looking for 3 friends of ours. The creature told me Lutrell could help. When I asked where he was, the creature pointed up. Was it the huge bird? No, that didn't make sense. It must've been in the tower that was on top of this building.

Lincoln knew enough and barged out. He was angry and in a hurry! I went to the room with the book to see if that could help us. But it didn't make sense at all. It had words like October with increasing numbers in every entry, and behind it the letters like PH and again numbers. This was not a story I could read...

Together with Tesla and Rianna we went back downstairs. There Lincoln was talking to another creature, which must've been Lutrell, with 10 more armed adult creatures behind him. We learned that Lutrell calls this place his shrine, and the other Zone-Ghouls his people. Lincoln explained about our 3 missing people and Lutrell agreed to help us find them as long as we would leave afterwards. Lincoln agreed to that. Did he forgot we were here also for another reason? We needed water for the Ark!

Suddenly there were noises from a machine in the back... Of course, it was Bolt. Lutrell didn't seem happy with all the things Bolt did to his machines. He was even speaking of the "Deep One" that would become angry. Who could that be, some kind of Boss from Below?

We learned that there were living live about 40-50 of these Zone-Ghoul-creatures here. At least they looked like Zone-Ghouls and couldn't handle the light very well. But they did speak our language a bit, and were not aggressive like all the others...

We split in multiple search parties. I went with Tesla and 2 of the creatures in a search for Ruby and the others! We walked around for a long time. When we got near the 3 big tanks at the beginning of the area a creature pointed to a dark hole in one of the tanks. He wanted us to go in there? We started yelling the names of our friends again: "Ruby!" "Ava!", "Finley!".

It stayed quiet, we kept yelling until we saw a few figures approaching from the dark... Could it be? Yes! It was Ruby!!! I ran towards her and gave her a big hug! Before I could react Finley ran towards the 2 creatures from the search party screaming "Zone-Ghouls"! Luckily my girl Tesla could stop him. She must've used her awesome mutation because Finley suddenly calmed down. We explained that these creatures were not hostile and were even helping us.

Ruby was very hungry so I quickly gave her my only non-contaminated grub. Tesla gave some to the other two. What a relieve, we found them unharmed!... It turned out they stayed hidden there for days because of the big angry bird that killed Felix. Which does make me wonder a bit.. Where is that evil bird now?...

Joyful Greetings!

Octavía

Session 5

Hey Notebook!

So we are back at the Ark, finally! Let me tell you what happened since last time.

Pure-One

Ava, Finley and Ruby were wondering what to do. Of course we were going to meet the rest, Lincoln was dying to see them! But they still were afraid for the Zone-Ghouls. I again explained that they looked similar, but were not aggressive and could talk our language. They should give them a chance! And to avoid any confusion from now on I'll call them the "Pure-Ones". It has a lot nicer ring to it than "Zone-Ghouls".

We met the others in front of the big building. Ava told their story, about how they encountered the Devourer and could only barely escape, thanks to Tank distracting it. How they arrived on the island and got attacked by the huge bird, which took Felix. How they stayed hidden in one of those huge metal barrels, such that the bird couldn't reach them anymore. And that they saw these Zone-Ghouls at night. Which we now know luckily turned out to be the Pure-Ones!

Bolt then started a (way too long) story about this place. Apparently this whole island is one big machine that makes dirty water clean and drinkable, and it is all connected underground.

Lincoln explained his plan. He wanted to figure out how they survived here, and if we could trade something for the water. Sounded like a good idea!

We went inside and started talking with Lutrell. It didn't went smoothly at all. Lutrell didn't wanted to tell us how they survived, he didn't think it was relevant for us. He just wanted us to leave. When we explained we wanted to trade for water to save our Ark he told us he didn't care, and that there was nothing they needed.

I explained more clearly that our water supply turned green, and that maybe some of that white powder could help? Or something else, since they knew a lot about cleaning water. But all I got in response was that it was not that easy, that this was a sacred place that you could not reproduce somewhere else, and more like that...

We did learn that the bald dog-like creatures were called "pigs" and that they arranged food for them. Meanwhile I was thinking about the "Deep One", wasn't that his boss? Maybe we should help him taking care of this "Deep One"?

When I brought up the "Deep One" Lutrell got really angry and irritated. He told me I should never say that word out loud... Not sure what has gotten into him, as if saying a word out loud could do any harm... In the end he told us that we could go look for the "Deep One", because we should be a good sacrifice.

Deep One

I'm still confused about this "Deep One"... Maybe it was not his boss, but like a 6 meter long mutated rat that would want to eat us like the huge bird? In that case we better skip that idea...

Lincoln in the meanwhile got so irritated and annoyed with Lutrell's attitude that he left the building. He told us to come with him and head back to the Ark. But I noticed that another Pure-One was interested in Rianna's axe.

So I stayed inside and proposed that we could setup a trade. We could come back with for example weapons which we could trade for water. Luckily Ruby was also still here and she helped me sell this idea. Her words did magic like always, and made this look like the best idea ever! <3

I had no idea how we could transport water for all people of the Ark from here... but I guess Bolt could help with a solution. Wasn't he talking about some tracked vehicle that could carry a lot of stuff between places?

We then went outside to convince Lincoln about the trade proposal. But Lincoln was stubborn and already made up his mind. He wanted to leave. Bolt mentioned that we could come back with 200 people. Since Lutrell also was outside, Finn added "To carry the water" to that, but I don't think Lutrell bought the excuse.

While the others were crossing the river I stayed to say goodbye to Lutrell. I thanked him for his help, and told him I would try to convince the others to set up a trade with them. He told me that he thought I was the only one thinking that way... I hope not. For sure Ruby would be interested in trading!

On the way back we took our time to make sure not to miss any useful resources.

In the wet area (H-18) we even found a large blue artifact that could float on the water, and 2 people could sit in it! This area is also where we spend the night.

In the morning I warmed contaminated grub above a fire, and I kept stirring it. Still not all Rot was gone, but I was getting close! I'm sure of it! Maybe it would help if I had a better container to heat it in...

We travelled back to the Ark while looking for more resources like grub and water. During that day I talked a bit to Lincoln about the trade proposal. I explained that is was better to not take the water by force, since without the Pure-Ones handling the island-machine, it would probably break and the clean water source would be gone forever.

Let's see if it helps, and at least he was less irritated then yesterday. Before we arrived back at the Ark I made sure to get rid of my Rot. I emitted the concentrated Rot on the ground. You could see the grass dying under the effect of it.

At the Ark we saw that there was good progress on the defense and croplands projects. The People were glad we were back with most of us alive, but some did expect us to already brought fresh water.

I told the stories of our journey to the People of the Ark and made sure they were added to the chronicles. These are the topics of these stories:

• The spire and the half-naked Ancient
• The Red Cross building and the Ancient skeletons
• The devourer blocking the route
• The huge bird that ate Felix
• The Pure Plant, an island that's a water cleaning machine
• The Pure Ones, living there and maintaining the machine
• The opportunity to setup a trade route for fresh water, if we figure out a way to transport the water

We also made sure that the book of the half-naked Ancient and the blue floating artifact were added to the Ark's Dawn Vault.

And that was this adventure. I'm curious what the next Assembly will decide about the Pure Plant and the Pure Ones!

Octavía

Session 6

Dear Notebook!

Tesla wanted to use the ancient blue clothes she found in the birds nest and enhance her own clothes with it. Luckily i'm good with needle and thread, so I helped her sewing it together! She looked amazing in blue! <3

The next morning I got called to Kincade's cabin at the first floor of the Ark. Kincade's body lay on the ground with an axe in his head. Nothing could be done to help him anymore, he was very dead. I removed the axe and handed it to Tesla, maybe she had a use for it. Together with Rianna and Tesla we brought the body to the fire place, where we burn all the dead.

Death's like this don't often happen on the Ark, most of the time it's the Rot, or an accident, or fights... But this looked like assassination... and nobody heard or saw anything... Also there was no reason why Kincade would've been a target, he was a good guy.

After that I went to Ruby to arrange some pots and pans. That should help me to prepare that contaminated grub, I was close to making it eatable, I'm sure of it!

The rest of the day I worked on the croplands. It was hard working, and I didn't cope well. I went to bed early, a good nights rest would help.

The next day I took it a little slower. I did some experimenting with the contaminated grub, and found out that Bolt was building some kind of raft. Apparently he thought it was easier to carry the water over the water instead of my idea to fix that tracked vehicle.

But did he really thought we would go on that raft? on the water? Would he want us all dead?! What if it would sink!...

In the evening Tesla came back to our cabin. She told me there was a clear sky that evening, and she had some great views of the surroundings. She told about a ruined dome in the north, And in the east a broken bridge and a long flat building with iron roads coming from it. She even saw a light very far to the east! Maybe one day we could go take a look there...

The next day Lincoln told us that he wanted to use Bolt's raft to go back to the Pure Plant to get fresh water. He arranged stuff to trade, and apparently they did some testing of Bolt's raft and it really could float?! They would leave the next morning and asked me to join. Since Tesla was also going I decided to join them. They would probably need me, and maybe I could finally get the Rot out of the grub, so we had more to eat.

Early the next morning we left. First I walked at the shore with Lincoln, pulling the raft via a rope. But later that day, when I noticed the raft felt surprisingly stable I tried to board it. Luckily we stayed close to the shore where the water was not too deep.

We travelled past the broken bridge in K-17. Into K-18, which had small buildings on both sides of the river. It was a wet area, with pools with mist above it. Also it felt warmer here, which was weird...

Into J-19 the surroundings again changed a bit. Instead of buildings there were high dead and rotting vegetations. I assumed the Rot did that...

So lets be careful. It was getting dark, and we decided to spend the night on an island, where we could better see and hear anyone or anything approaching.

During that night, someone heard a female voice: "Helloooo... Helloooo...."

Later my love!

Octavía

Session 7

Sweetest Notebook of all!

I'm not sure what wakened me, but Tesla was gone! Where was she? who was keeping watch? And Rianna was also gone! I heard sounds from the North and therefore woke everyone up.

It was pitch dark, but we carefully walked towards the noise. A dim flame could be seen in the distance across the water. I ran after Finn and Flux across the water and through dead and rotten vegetation. We arrived at a clearing with a huge plant! This must have been a tree, I've heard stories about those!

The tree had a big mouth and was attacking Rianna and Tesla with its branches! A green person was standing next to it. Or not really a person, it had no face! Really, nothing, no eyes, no nose, no mouth...

Finn and Flux started to attack a bearded guy that was standing next to a woman at the edge of the clearing. When I arrived at the clearing, I got a weird feeling as if the tree was calling for me... But I could resist it.

Tesla was too close to the tree. This was not like her at all, she should shoot arrows from a safe distance! I motivated here to find the courage to get out of there, away from the tree!

The fight continued and Tesla found the courage to break free from the tree. Lincoln started biting the bearded guy and the woman as a wild animal, Bolt spit acid on the woman and the tree, and Rianna set the green creature and tree on fire! Even I picked up a rock and threw it at the woman! Yes, not sure what got to me but it was really scary and I needed to help!

But then things worsened. The branches grabbed Rianna and brought her to its huge mouth! I tried to encourage Rianna to get out of the tree's entangling grip, but it was too late. The tree crushed Rianna's foot with its mouth, leaving her in paralyzing pain. But she was not alone! All the others helped and we managed to kill the tree!

We quickly got Rianna away from the burning tree and I started to look at her foot. I needed to act fast! First I put the bones back into their original positions. Then I stitched it up with needle and thread. Rianna stayed surprisingly calm during all of this, she even seemed happy? What a woman! Lastly I took 2 branches which I used to splint the foot, and bandaged it with cloth.

We went back to camp and tried to get some sleep. In the morning it was time to eat! I cooked contaminated grub in the pan that I brought with me. It took me a long time, but in the end I think I finally did it! It tasted... normal! *Hurray!* I gave everyone except me a portion from it! For me it was better to eat the disgusting contaminated grub, since my body could handle it. Better keep the good stuff for my friends! <3

Then I looked up and saw Lincoln. What happened to him! His beard... it turned into vines and moss! And it even had flowers in it! So beautiful! Seems eating those tree-creatures had changed him... And I like his new look!

After breakfast Tesla had an amazing surprise for me! She found this thin book with drawings in it. It also had a name: "Deadpool #483".

The pictures were very violent, and it was about a mutant, just like us! When he wasn't wearing a cap, his face looked contaminated by the Rot, and he had very powerful mutations and could heal himself!

Did the Ancients also had mutations just like us? Or even more powerful ones? Was the Rot already around that long ago? So many questions! I will study this book a lot! All the violent and wounds in it might give me more insights into how to better cure those wounds!

Tesla and Bolt also found 2 other artifacts. A device that could make light from electricity, and a metal stick use to hit something with. But it was not clear what to hit with it...

Time to continue following the river! We went into sector I-18. There we found a fenced area with a lot of metal structures in it. Some had ladders, others chains and there was one that was 4 times Rianna's height!

We also found a weird vehicle for 1 person. It had 2 wheels and a chain like Finn's weapon. I wasn't sure how it could function and stay straight with only 2 wheels, but i'm sure Bolt can figure it out! We also found more useful stuff like water, bullets and contaminated grub.

In I-19 there was a huge skeleton of a concrete building next to the river. You could look through it and it was 10 stories high! We were inspecting it from a distance to see if we could climb it for the view, when it suddenly collapsed!

A lot of dust and the sound of falling stone and... squeaking? Tesla recognized it as rats! Lots of rats! We quickly got away from that place. Rats can be very dangerous in huge numbers!

-XXX-

Octavía

Session 8

My dearest Notebook,

We had an uneventful night, and in the morning I prepared the contaminated Rot which Tesla found in the Zone! I love how she finds the most useful things in the weirdest places! I also managed to cook some contaminated water which became drinkable! Too bad this is not easy to do on a large scale...

We continued following the river into H-19. There we found an area with multiple short parallel roads with small elevations between them. On those elevations were signs that contained words like "Brookland", "Chevy Chase" and "Takoma". No clue what they meant.

On those short roads there were these wreckages of big vehicles. I entered one and it was filled with broken benches! These were probably used to transport a LOT of people, more than 50 in each one of them! But why would you need to move so many people around?

Tesla found a metal container with a weird liquid in it. Bolt, who seemed very happy with 2 huge tires he found, could tell us it might be used for fueling machines? Or to burn!

We continued to G-19 and saw a woman wandering in the distance. Lincoln approached her but she seems confused and hurt! Even Tesla's telepathy and Finn's pathokinesis powers didn't help much. Her brain was a mess!

I closely inspected her, gave her some fresh water and treated her open wounds. She was very cold and had some black spots on her skins and fingers. Was it the Rot that did that to her? Her talking also didn't make any sense... I did noticed 3 "words" being repeated... "Oes Zie Red", or something like that. She was wearing clothes from a weird fabric, and it had a star-like logo on it which had some resemblances to the logo on Mary's notebook.

Tesla proposed to bring her to our raft, which was a great idea! We wouldn't leave her here alone, she would probably die. And we needed to figure out who she was, and where she came from. Not from our Ark, so from where was she? Maybe ... Eden?!!

We followed our journey on the raft. The river started to look darker, more dirty and started to smell. There was more Rot here and soon Bolt had to throw up. He became very sickly and passed out...

When we came closer to the Pure Plant the water became cleaner again and we spend the night there at the shore. We made a campfire and made sure that the strange woman was close to it to warm up. Lincoln made a stupid joke about putting the woman above the fire... he didn't like use sharing resources with this strange woman, and probably rather eat her then help her. Sometimes he makes me very angry and I wonder why I even help him...

During the night Finn woke us up. It turned out there were some Pure-Ones that found us. They mentioned something about another group? Let's get to sleep and find out tomorrow. They left one Pure-One behind, which swam away at the end of my watch.

In the morning Tesla had water for me since I gave my last bottle to the strange woman yesterday. She already looked a bit better today and was very happy with the grub Tesla gave her. She still spoke in a weird language which didn't make any sense. Tesla tried to read her mind again, and this time she got an image of a weird white bright room or area with vague shadows moving around... Could it be her memory of Eden?

Most of us washed themselves in the river to get rid of the Rot. Rianna helped the strange woman. I thought it was better to not get rid of the Rot in me, since I might needed it later...

We went to the Pure Plant and moored the raft at the wooden structure in the water. Tesla and me were going inside to talk to Lutrell, but noticed Lincoln stayed behind with Rianna and Bolt. Why wouldn't he join? It was his plan to trade and I assumed he would arrange the trading?! After some convincing by Finn he did join us.

The door to the hall was broken, and I noticed some dried out blood pools on the ground. What happened here? Lutrell told us that a group of 20-25 woman attacked them. People died, and the woman took some of their man and boys with them as prisoners! He also told us they arrived in a big riding vehicle!

It was a sad story, and the Pure-Ones didn't deserve that... We should help them get their people back! But I'm sure Lincoln wouldn't want to do that without a good reason. It's then when I had this awesome idea! What if we could free their people, and they would pay us in water for it! Maybe we could even offer them some kind of protection after that for even more water?!

Tesla in the meanwhile talked to Lutrell about the trinkets we had to trade for water. And while walking to the raft I explained my amazing idea to Lincoln. He told me to go with that idea to Lutrell and see what he would say!

Later my love,

Octavía

Session 9

Morning Notebook,

I'm still a bit shaken this morning, so let me tell you what happened since last time...

We were at the Pure Plant talking to Lutrell. I explained that we wanted to free the kidnapped Pure-Ones, and in exchange for that they would provide us enough water to sustain our Ark. Also we could trade some of the trinkets we brought for some barrels of water.

Lutrell was very happy with our proposal, but didn't had much use for the trinkets. They needed weapons to protect themselves. We agreed to stay for the day, and Bolt would help them build some scrap weapons. We also gave Lutrell the metal stick we found.

I spend most of that day with Yelena Varvarra, which I learned were the names of the strange woman. Yes, she had two names! She also repeated some specific words: "Um Si Eli", "Laboratoria" and "Voyna".

I gave her my pencil to see if she could write, and indeed she could! She had troubles holding the pencil with her painful black fingertips, and her writing was weird, using some characters I didn't recognize. It was clear she was writing in another language. When I pointed to her black fingertips, she portrayed she was cold! Could cold do that to your fingertips??

The others spend that day with other things:

• Bolt was making weapons from scrap and reinforced the raft.
• Finn wandered around. He apparently learned where the Deep One was.
• Lincoln talked with Lutrell and learned about the female attackers, pigs and water cleaning.
• Rianna and Tesla spend some time with me and Yelena, but also helped Bolt.

In the evening after dinner Lutrell invited us to join their offering ritual. We walked towards the west side of the island. Some Pure-Ones were carrying a small pig.

Next to a large grid with a hole in it we stopped. Meters below there was a pool with calm water. They threw the pig in the hole and soon there were bubbles all over the water!! What was that? There was something in the water! Was it eating the pig? That would mean the Deep One wasn't a mutated rat, but maybe a mutated fish?

Time to get some sleep, but before that I walked to the shore to spit out all the Rot I still had in me. Argh, it didn't go easy and I came back disoriented and had a huge headache. I quickly went to get some sleep, and was glad my watch was at the end of the night.

The next day we traveled back to the Ark. Even with all the filled water barrels the raft performed very well, and the way back was uneventful.

Finally, back at the Ark, and what a surprise, the croplands were finished!! But that wasn't the only surprise... Elona told us another weird death happened: Latifa jumped down from the 4th floor, suicide... Jo-Ann and Max saw it happen! I didn't knew here very well, but it was another strange death...

After that it was time to bring the book with stories of the ancient mutant to the Dawn Vault. Our people should learn that even ancients had mutations, even more powerful than ours! Deadpool's story should live on!!

And can you imagine how surprised I was when I also saw Bolt at the Dawn Vault?! Apparently he brought the weird 2-wheeled vehicle there. Looks like he finally started to figure out that more people besides himself could learn from the artifacts we find!

Yelena didn't get the welcome she deserved. The people were afraid of her and avoided her. Even Elona thought she shouldn't be here. I explained that we could learn a lot from her and that she might even be from Eden! Yelena recognized that and repeated the word Eden to Elona. But Elona ignored it and made clear that Yelena was not welcome on her deck.

This all made me a bit afraid for leaving Yelena alone on the Ark when we would go out to fight those female kidnappers. Together with Rianna, who had the same concerns, we came with a plan! We talked to Ruby <3, and as awesome and lovely as she is, she promised us to keep an eye out for her and would set her to work. Yelena could sleep in my and Tesla's den. Maybe she could even learn something about us and our language from some of my old notebooks...

Finally, time for some sleep... so I thought...

It was halfway the night when I rudely got awoken by two of Lincoln's enforcers. Apparently Lincoln was badly wounded?! I grabbed my stuff and went his room. There he was, breathing heavily and blood everywhere! What happened? He looked like he was attacked by a wild animal and his lung was punctured! I quickly started the operation, and spend at least an hour, if not longer, until Lincoln was finally stabilized.

His enforcers didn't want to tell me what happened... why those secrets? Was Lincoln really the good person who I thought he was? Or did he had a secret agenda like Harper, and was he just using me? I left that room full of confusion and doubt... what was going on on this Ark, was I helping the right person? Lincoln does want to help the Pure-Ones... Or is there even a hidden agenda there?.... I went back to bed, but didn't sleep much anymore that night...

That was it for now,

Octavía

Session 10

My dearest Notebook,

I don't remember too much from yesterday morning anymore... it is a bit of a blur. We left on the raft to free the Pure-Ones, that's for sure...

After a few hours on the raft we put it on the East-shore close to J-19 where we continued on foot. The area was a wasteland... not many buildings, and everything in ashes. It was clear there was going to be Rot here, and Bolt prepared himself by putting on his Rot-suit. And indeed, I started to feel the rot accumulating while Tesla found a path through the area. I even had to use my mutation to make sure to not get hurt by the Rot.

J-20 wasn't too much better. There was high vegetation here, but it was all burned and dead. Until at some point we saw that some of these dead trees being overgrown with vines and beautiful flowers!

Lincoln warned us to be careful, and threw a rock at the flowers. But Finn walked towards the flowers. And at that moment a big cloud of colorful dust came from the flowers, and Finn dropped on the ground. What happened? Was it poison? Was he still alive?

It wasn't safe to get close because of the dust clouds, but still Lincoln crawled towards him while covering his mouth and nose with a rag. There were bones on the ground, and Finn was stuck. Thorned vines grapples his legs.

I encouraged Lincoln to cut Finn loose and get out of there quickly! Rianna, Bolt and Tesla all helped with fire, acid and a machete and together we managed to get Finn out of there.

I had a look at Finn. He was... sleeping? His leg was wounded and it looked like he had a concussion. While trying to heal him my mind couldn't focus. Thoughts went to last night and Lincoln. He did save Finn without hesitation.. he had to be good, right?

Luckily Rianna helped me to treat Finn, I couldn't do it alone in that state. It's only after we were done I noticed Rianna's hair?!! It was bright-red? What happened there? That wasn't the case earlier today... or was it? Was my mind playing tricks on me?

Tesla found a path that avoided the area with the flowers and she even found tracks from a large vehicle! We were getting close, and decided to spend the night a few hundred meters from the tracks.

That evening when it got dark we saw lights coming from a huge tower in the south-east. And the lights changed every now and then. At one moment we even saw some kind of beam of light next to the tower pointing into the air. But a moment later it was gone again. According to my map that could be the "Singing Monolith".

The rest of that evening Tesla was there for me. We talked a lot, I even cried a bit. So much happened lately and it was all filling my head with doubts. But she helped me make sense of things again, and that night I slept very well.

In the morning I cooked all the contaminated Rot Tesla had, and I made some more time to check up on Finn. I gave him some advice of how to handle his concussion to speed up his recovery.

Next we walked into K-21. You could see more buildings here, most in decent states. But there was one thing you could almost always see, the huge tower! It had a huge wall of scrap around it, with people walking on top of it! And one of those big vehicles was blocking the entrance. Maybe they could drive it away to open the entrance?

Tesla and Ava went ahead to scout the rest of the area. They found out that there were about 10 people on the walls, all woman with guns. Outside of the walls they saw remains of Zone-Ghouls. They didn't find any weak spot in the walls, the gate was the only way to go in.

Next to the entrance they saw a huge lamp. It was pointed towards the entrance. This would also make it more difficult to get in unseen during the night. And It's probably the source of the light we saw shining into the sky yesterday...

We were almost certain this were the woman that kidnapped the Pure-Ones. But where were they... inside? Somewhere in the tower? We had no idea, and it looked impossible to get even past the scrap wall...

We spend some time with Lincoln searching for tunnels in other buildings. He hoped that there was an underground way to get in, like at the Pure Plant. But we found nothing...

So I have no clue how we can ever save them... It seems so difficult to even get in, and they all have guns!! We could try talking, but I doubt they are willing to give away their slaves, or whatever the Pure-Ones are for them... So what can we do?? Maybe Lincoln has an idea?...

Be safe,

Octavía

Session 11

Dear Notebook,

We set up camp in a large building next to the tower. Lincoln and his crew went hunting, and we stayed behind to keep an eye on the tower. First we watched from a higher floor so that we could look over the wall.

There were women walking around ordering the men around. The men worked in the cropland and walked around with buckets of water, which were filled through a pipe on the side of the building via a continuous stream of water. It was clear that the woman were in charge.

Then we moved to a spot close to the gate and waited... After a while, 3 women came out of the gate and headed North. Tesla and Finn followed them without being seen. Rianna, me and Bolt stayed watching the gate. As expected, it only took a moment before Bolt left us to search (s)crap again.

Later that afternoon we heard a noise that got louder and louder. After a few minutes we saw a large vehicle approaching at a running speed. It looked the same as the ones we had seen a few days ago in J-19, and it stopped in front of the gate.

There were 9 women inside, but no sign of the Pure-Ones. There was something strange going on with one of the women, she had a very big belly, even though she was not fat... Was that a mutation? Or the Rot?

Rianna went to a higher floor to look behind the wall. She saw the vehicle go down a ramp and disappear into the building.

After another long wait we saw 2 of the 3 women return. One of them had a large package in the shape of a small person on her shoulders. Fortunately too small to be Finn or Tesla! But what happened to them, where was the last woman? And more important, where was Tesla?!

At the end of the day, after Lincoln and his crew returned, Finn arrived. He was carrying a rifle, but still no Tesla!?! Finn explained that she was in a building nearby because they had captured a woman named Carla. Finn recommended that our women go there to question her further, as she did not listen well to men. So Rianna and I went to them.

Tesla had blindfolded and gagged Carla. We took her to a place a little further from the tower where we questioned her. This is what we learned:

• There are about 150 people living in the Tower.
• There is a boss called the Chairman, he is a man?!
• He is the boss because he can make children! Yes, children! Which are like small new people!
• We learned how they make children, and apparently the very big belly is a child growing inside that woman! Isn't that amazing! But why isn't that working for us?? What's so special about this Chairman?
• They see the Pure-Ones as Zone-Ghouls, and they eat Zone-Ghouls. So we have to save the Pure-Ones before they eat them!!!
• Men are called Givers, and are treated like slaves.
• If we want to try to free the Pure-Ones, we need to talk to the Chairman.
• They don't have the Rot inside, and when we go in we will have to wash ourselves.
• We are the first other people they encounter.
• They are mutants like us, but they can make children...
• The wall and guns are just to protect them against Zone-Ghouls, of which they have a lot during the night.
• She thinks it's safe for us and our men to enter the Tower.

After the questioning, as we walked back to our camp, Rianna and Tesla heard the sound of a seagull!

Tesla recognized it as a signal from our stalkers, and she also made a seagull sound. Then Jo-Ann emerged from the darkness! What was she doing out here? She told us she had an important message for us from Elona, who send out multiple stalkers in search for Lincoln. The message was:

"The Elder is dying, and when he's dead Harper will take over. Please return quickly!"

That wasn't good! I'm sure Lincoln won't let that happen! But he has to be on the ark to stop it! And is Ruby safe? :'( We have to go back as soon as possible, she could be in danger!

But going back through the Zone at night is deadly, and if I'm dead I can't help Ruby... So we have to wait until tomorrow... Maybe we can spend the night in the Tower and see if we can get the Pure-Ones out before they eat them!?

I hope Ruby is fine... <3

Octavía

Session 12

Hi Notebook,

To the tower it was! I spit out all my rot, and after Carla let them know it was her, the vehicle-door went open. Inside we were washed. I guess they couldn't notice I already got all Rot out of me.

Next we were offered weird block-shaped grub. I told them that I would eat my own grub, since they ate Zone-Ghouls and Pure-Ones here... Who would be so crazy to eat that. Well, it turned out to be everyone besides me!! Even Tesla! I already got sick by the idea of it... so kept to my own grub. Even after I warned the others that they could be eating Pure-Ones they didn't care...

Time for some distraction. While Carla would talk to the chairman, we were allowed to walk around everywhere except the basement and the penthouse (which apparently was the top floor).

The area was lighted by strange flickering lights without a flame! Must've been artifacts from the ancient ones, something Bolt might be interested in. I started looking for a chronicler. In search to answers questions like: "What is their history?", "What do they know about the ancient ones?" and "Do they know anything more about the Rot?".

But it turned out that they hadn't written down much, and I was pointed to Nafta. After I got her attention she turned out to more a Gearhead then a Chronicler. I didn't learn much from her. And when I asked about the basement it looked like she was afraid to tell about that... like they had something to hide. She did stay friendly, and was very interested in our Ark.

Outside children were playing. Boys and girls, but you could notice the girls were fighting with sticks, while the boys were not allowed to. Why this division? Then suddenly a man came running from the building! He was covered in blood, like he was tortured! He tried to escape via the closed gate, but the woman on top of the vehicle shot him after he ignored a warning!

What was going on here?! That man must've been really desperate! After that she ordered some other man to bring the body to the basement... What would they do with it, turn it into cubes to eat it?

Carla then gathered us and brought us to a wooden platform in the building. There was a long rope attached to the top of it, I couldn't even see the end of it! We had to stand on the platform and slowly we went up. I held on tightly to a pole... Bolt even started to jump, did he want us all to fall to our death?!! Luckily Carla stopped him.

It was about 25 floors when the platform stopped. I had never been this high in my life, and didn't dare to look down... We were lead to a big room with a wooden desk. The walls were filled with old stuff. One had confusing text on it, and the large word "Certificate"? Behind the desk there was a tall pale man in a black cloak, and behind him a strong looking woman with black hair and a gun. The man was older then us, and welcomed us as the newcomers?

Tesla and me tried talking to him. While Tesla told the story about our ark, I tried to convince him to release the Pure-Ones. But he kept saying the wanted to know more about where we are from. It also become very clear he didn't care at all about the Pure-Ones, and couldn't tell us if they were alive or not. I even started to wonder if he cared about anyone besides himself. His only opinion was that he was great because he could make children.

I did learn that all these mutant-woman were not his children, just the small ones. But when asking about the past, how he got here and that kind of things, he didn't give any clear answer. It all lead back to how great he was and that we all should recognise that, and that he could also help our Ark with getting children. Something weird was going on here... How did this situation became to be? Was he an Ancient one? I had so many questions and he wouldn't answer any of them...

Tesla continued trying to set up a trade and this kind of stuff. Why did she wanted to cooperate with such a man? She was very close to revealing the location of our Ark when Lincoln shut her up. Not much after that we left the room, without any way to free the Pure-Ones, and without any useful information, except that this Chairman is crazy...

Carla brought us to a place to sleep inside the building. We were alone, so we started to evaluate the situation... It didn't look good for the Pure-Ones... Then Flux started growling. A woman appeared from the shadows. She had been eavesdropping on us, and introduced herself as Krin. Apparently she also got tired of the Chairman controlling everything, and his quest for more power.

She warned us that he would probably follow us to our Ark if we left! Maybe she could convince the Chairman the go with us, telling him she would spy on us. But in the end she then would join us and abandon the Chairman. I also asked her about the past, but seems she can't remember anything from when she was young, similar to us...

Besides the first idea, another idea was to come into action this night or tomorrow morning She explained that half the people here (all man) wanted this to stop also. And maybe a few other woman? Could it be possible to free the man and Pure-Ones, and convince the woman to live in a different way? Make and end to this Chairman?

Well dear notebook, I hope we can solve this, and safe the Pure-Ones. And don't forget about Ruby also! We have to go back to the Ark tomorrow!...

Octavía

Session 13

Sweet Notebook,

I wasn't sure what to think of this whole situation... There was this crazy Chairman, women with guns, captured Pure-Ones ready to be eaten, and men that were handled as slaves... And of course the situation at our Ark where we had to go quickly, since Ruby could be in danger!

But Lincoln came with a plan. First Tesla, Finn and Ava were going to scout the basement. A few minutes after they left Ava returned. She had distracted the guard such that Tesla and Finn could enter the basement.

I kept looking outside. There was the big beam of light at the entrance. It wasn't as bright as during the day, and at certain moment completely dark for a minute.

Then we heard a gunshot! Lincoln ran downstairs... It was Flux that got shot by a guard! I removed the bullet and bandaged him, poor dog... Tesla and Finn who also returned told us about the basement. There were 8 cages. Most with men and one with Pure-Ones. Some men had to push a big wooden wheel around, and when they collapsed from fatigue and the wheel stopped, the lights went out! There were also 2 doors, but they were not able to reach them without being seen.

Then it was time for the second part of the plan. Lincoln, his crew and Rianna would go up all those stairs to the Chairman and take care of him. We would wait a bit and then go downstairs to the basement, to free the men and Pure-Ones.

I was getting scared... killing the Chairman, killing some guards... Then hoping we would find a vehicle and Bolt could operate it... And what to do outside? There was a wall with women with guns that would shoot at us! And the gate was blocked! Would this be our dead? But I also didn't see another option of how to free the Pure-Ones...

25 stairs was a lot, so we waited quite some time and then we went downwards, Tesla and Finn in the front. Tesla's arrows took care of the guard. She did scream, I hoped nobody heard that...

We went into the basement with Bolt dragging her body. He then held the body in front of the doorway to the basement room. We heard a "Who is there?". Tesla took cover behind the body and shot an arrow! A gunshot was fired back which landed in the body. Finn, who took the shotgun from the first guard, shot the other guard dead.

We entered the basement. It was dark with only one small flickering light. I went towards the cage with the Pure-Ones. It was locked. I told them Lutrell send us to free them. They were happy about that, but also told me 2 of them were already taken through one of the doors. I looked behind it and it was like a nightmare (and that's coming from someone who often has to cut open body parts). It smelled awful, bodies were hanging on the ceiling on hooks and dried blood everywhere! It was clear there was nobody alive here so I quickly closed the door again... I wasn't even sure anymore if it were Pure-Ones, Zone-Ghouls or other humans... but probably all of them... These woman were crazy! Who does something like that!

In the meanwhile Bolt opened the locks with his acid. We followed him to the other door, and behind it was a big room with a slope leading outside. In it 2 of those big vehicles! And one of them even had a big gun on top of it. Bolt smiled when he saw that!..

I wonder how it went in then "Penthouse"... how long till they were downstairs again? Would we survive this? I already started looking for a safe place to hide inside that vehicle...

Love,

Octavía

Session 14

Dearest Notebook,

When me and the 8 Pure-Ones entered the room with the busses (that's what Krin called the vehicles), Tesla was grabbing trinkets and tools from the shelves and putting them on the bus, while Bolt found a way into it and was trying to get the bus door to open.

A few minutes later the bus door opened, but Bolt closed it again and told us to wait outside until he turned the bus on. Tesla and Finn were climbing on top of the bus to use the cannons. I myself went back to the previous room to free the men at the big wheel.

At the same time Rianna, Lincoln and the others arrived in the basement. Krin was with them. And while cutting the ropes from the men at the wheel there was suddenly a big flash of light coming from the bus room! It was follow by a screaming woman. What happened there?

We quickly went there. The bus started making noise and the door was open. I made sure all Pure-Ones and freed men entered it and looked for a safe place to hide.

The bus started moving up the ramp and there were shots, light flashes, fire! It was a chaos, and very scary... But I noticed Rianna took over the wheel such that Bolt and Lincoln could try to get the gate open. But she was struggling... I gathered all tehe courage I could find and decided to help her. We couldn't crash into a wall here, that would mean we would all die! I told Rianna to keep pushing the pedal with her feet while I grabbed the wheel.

Then suddenly I saw a small figure in front of the bus! I quickly steered to avoid it at all cost! I was not planning to kill innocent children here! The shooting continued and it looked like our bus was breathing fire, which was scary, but it helped to keep the women away.

The gate was now open and I steered through it! Bolt and Lincoln could barely jump on the bus and I steered towards the North until we were out of sight of the Tower. Then me and Rianna let Bolt take over the driving again.

We rode until the sun came up. During breakfast me, Rianna and Tesla shared all our grub and water with the Pure-Ones and the men. I don't think the others were going to share, but we had enough such that at least everyone got something to eat.

But where to now? I suggested the Pure Plant, since from there we could drive further to the Ark. But Lincoln was afraid that would take too long. We needed to hurry to the Ark. Which was a good point, we had to safe Ruby quickly!

So the plan was made to drive towards the raft. There we would split into a raft and a bus group. We would follow to river until we were close to the Ark. There we could use the raft to let everyone cross the river, and hide the bus.

Before we left again Bolt put on his yellow rot suit. I guess it made sense, we had to cross that heavy rot area again to reach the river.

An hour or so later we arrived at the place were we left our raft, but it was gone! Did the water raise and take it? Lincoln started to walk to see if he could cross the river. But halfway he turned back, and he walked past the bus! Further south. It wasn't clear what was in his mind, but we followed him with the bus. A few hundred meters further he walked towards the river again, and there was the raft!

So now quickly to the Ark, and make sure Ruby is fine! <3

Lot of love,

Octavía

Session 15

Sweet Notebook,

We decided to split into two groups. Ava, Jack, Tesla and Rianna would use the raft, and the others the bus.

We drove through K-18. There were a lot of pools of water which we needed to avoid, and at one point a wheel got stuck in the mud, and we all had to push the bus out.

Then we entered L-17. Tesla joined us to find a way through this area. She noticed some huge beasts which we could avoid. And soon we got close to an area filled with weird metal bars on the ground. Always 2 next to each other. It seems on top of that vehicles could drive? Like busses that could only drive on those metal bars. And they all came together next to a big ruined building.

While Tesla was finding a path through the area Bolt decided to just stop the bus and walk around alone. Why would he do that?! Lets hope he will survive I guess...

Tesla returned with a weird artifact. She couldn't figure out what it was for, and after I checked it I also had no clue... Also she figured out this was a bad place to cross the river.

So after Bolt finally was called back we went into L-16. It was weird, there were a lot of rusted metal towers, but they didn't look like they had been buildings you could live in... Also there was a weird low humming sound. We found a place were the river was calm and we could cross it! We could even already see the Ark in the distance!

When we crossed the river and approached the ark I noticed that the defenses were finally ready, and there was a watchtower at the top! Elona was glad we were back. The Elder was still alive! She brought us to him. Inside the Ark I noticed that the marks of Harper were added to a lot more doors.. Did he claimed 2 more floors for his gang?! He really wanted to take over this Ark. Let's hope Lincoln can prevent that...

The Elder was lying in his bed, and looked really bad. Miri, the chronicler that was attending to him, did all she could. There wasn't much that could save the Elder's life... I would give him not more than a few days. While I was checking the Elder Lincoln talked to Elona about how to prevent Harper from gaining power.

After that me and Tesla met Yelena in our room. It seems she was doing well. Tesla showed her the weird device with strings. And surprisingly she could make sound with it! Well, we also managed some noise, but this sounded a lot better! Especially after she turned on some of the knobs at the end!

Later Tesla told me about what she saw in the mind of the Elder. A white room, a woman which the elder called Doctor Retzius. And the Elder was called Doctor Sebedius! They worn white clothes, and on a desk Tesla saw the same logo as on that blue notebook! What was going on here? Where was that?

I showed the logo to Yelena to see if see recognised it, and at the same time Tesla read her mind. It made her angry, and Tesla saw terrible things... We both were shaken by all the things happening today, and the elder dying... We did a lot of talking that evening which helped, and we got a great night of sleep.

The next morning I took it slow. That was until I was called by Bolt. Apparently he was checking all the stuff they took from the Tower, and figured out one of the devices could make a sound. And it was some kind of recording! He asked me to write it down in case they couldn't use the device again anymore. So I did:

As per order of Mimir High Command, all Mimir personnell of security clearance five or above should report to the nearest command center as soon as possible. For reference, command center Alpha is located at 38.80 -76.86, command center Bravo is located at 38.93, -77.22, command center Charlie is located at 38.71, -77.18, command center Delta is located at 38.99 -76.85, command center Echo is located at 38.70, -77.08. All other civilians should remain in their homes. There is nothing to worry about. Have a nice day.

Wait, what did I just wrote down? Again that Doctor Retzius? And in combination with Mimir, that was the text next to that image in the blue notebook! But what about all those numbers? Maybe locations on a map? But not our map, that had letters and numbers, not twice a number...

Nicest regards,

Octavía

Session 16

Dear awesome Notebook,

I'm not feeling great... but i'll get to that...

Me, Lincoln and Tesla took 2 of the Pure-Ones to our water basin. They explained that the green color was from tiny plants living in our water! Not healthy tiny plants I guess...

But at the Pure Plant they had white powder that could help make it clean again. A few handful should do it. Great news! This could solve our water problems!

The rest of the morning I helped with the museum project, it's going to be great! I found a great spot for that book about the mutant Deadpool, so everyone on the Ark can learn about this mutant from the Ancients and his amazing powers!

The Pure-Ones were not welcomed here, most of the people didn't trust them at all. So we decided to bring them home as soon as possible. But with all the unrest here at the Ark it would be best if Lincoln would stay here.

Only Bolt was missing, but Rianna found him outside of the Ark next to some broken vehicle. We could convince him to join us by making clear we wanted to use the bus. That way we could bring the Pure-Ones home, and get the bus across the river to our Ark. Elona was sad to see us go, but understood and wished us good luck.

We crossed the river with the raft. Bolt had the crazy idea to put the raft on top of the bus, and surprisingly it worked?! The first part of the journey was known territory, from L-16 to L-17 to K-18 to J-19. It went surprisingly fast with this bus!

Then we came to a new zone, I-20. It looked fine, decent roads and buildings. In the distance we saw 1 bigger building that stood out. Tesla saw some weird beasts next to it through the "goggles that make things bigger". I also had a look, and those beasts had to be Bitterbeasts! I've read about those in chronicler writings... they can spit acid and are bad-tempered. Better not go there! Also after an hour or so in this area we started to notice Rot-effects, so we moved on.

To H-20! It looked worse, more ruined buildings. But we could find a "nice" spot to spend the night under the overhang of a building. Tesla, me and the Pure-Ones slept under that overhang,

because there was not enough room in the bus.

In the middle of the night I was awoken by the screaming of a Pure-One. He yelled: "Get it off me!". It seems there were big black worm-like created sucking themself onto people. They were falling from the overhang! I took my knife and tried to stab the one attached to Tesla. But no luck, their skin was really thick.

Others started to pull them off, and Rianna was burning the ones on the ground with fire. I saw one sliding towards me so emitted concentrated Rot on it... wait, did I hit my own arm? Paralyzing pain went through me and all went black...

I'm not sure how much time passed, but I woke up when Rianna was bandaging my arm. I was in the bus, but it was on a different location now. I really have to be more careful next time... but first lets get a few more hours of sleep...

The next morning I already felt a bit better, Rianna did a great job. But then suddenly, when I resist the Rot in me, I felt something weird happening... It triggered some mutation and my skin felt different... I can now force it to emit a burst of light, and maybe even obscure myself by bending the surrounding light. This is scary and amazing at the same time!

I should try it out later, but first food. I cooked the contaminated grub and water me and Tesla had and gave most of it to the Pure-Ones. It was all the water and grub I had, but I assumed Lutrell could give us some grub and water for the way back.

We were almost there, G-20 had less building and more dead vegetation. It was wet, but at least the roads were good enough. At some point we saw a square with a big black pillar.

It had a weird metal-shine and was not rusted at all? Also we saw no doors or seems in it. What was that? Tesla wanted to have a closer look, but got a weird feeling when approaching it. So we decided to continue to the Pure Plant.

When we arrived at the lake, me, Tesla and the Pure-Ones left the bus and started walking through the water to the Pure Plant. The others would drive the bus around the lake.

Glowing love!

Octavía

Session 17

Gorgeous Notebook,

We arrived at the Pure Plant where Lutrell was welcoming us. He was very happy to see most of the Pure-Ones back.

He was wondering how we got there, so me and Tesla explained: That the others were driving around the lake in the bus. About the tower, lead by a mad chairman which Lincoln killed. How they saw the Pure-Ones the same as Zone-Ghouls, which they ate! And how we freed them and a lot of the men, and escaped with the bus!

He was shocked, like me, about them eating Zone-Ghouls and Pure-Ones. I decided not to tell him the rest of my party ate the food there... I'm still getting sick thinking about that...

He was also very worried that the women left there would come back to the Pure Plant to get more of them. While I was worried about that too, I tried to comfort him by explaining that they couldn't leave their children behind, that we had that bus now, and that the Pure-Ones had weapons now! For now it helped...

Next I asked about the white powder. Which clearly sparked something in Lutrell, since he started to talk and talk. I couldn't follow all the details he mentioned but I think I got the basic idea. And it sounded a lot more complicated then the Pure-Ones in the Ark made it sound. We have to:

* Empty the basin until only a little bit of water is left!! That will be a LOT of work, I should ask Bolt later if he has some ideas about that...

• Add the white powder to the leftover water.
• Make the sides and bottom clean with that and remove the leftover water.
• Wait till it rains again.

He also mentioned something about covering the basin to prevent stuff to get in there, but how would the rain get in then?? Maybe Bolt has more ideas?

In the meanwhile Rianna, Bolt and Finn joined us. Besides the white powder I asked 2 more things from Lutrell:

• Some piglets so we could grew our own pigs at the Ark (Lincoln asked for this)
• Some grub and water for the way back, since we gave most of ours to the Pure-Ones.

He agreed with this, and all looked to be great, until Bolt opened his mouth....

For some reason he thought it was "funny" to scare Lutrell with the threat of the women attack again, ruining all my effort to calm him down! Argh! Not sure what's going on here, he more often was annoying, but today it was even worse!

In a second effort to calm down Lutrell I explained that I will ask Lincoln to send some people in a week or so with more weapons to trade. After another remark of Bolt I told him there was engine sound outside... maybe that would get him away from here!

In my conversation with Lutrell I decided to show him our map. I explained where the Ark was and that they could follow the river to get there. And told them about the tower location. He was very impressed by all this knowledge of the surrounding area!

But since Bolt still wasn't leaving, and Rianna was impatience, it would be best to all go to the Ark. In the meanwhile Rianna already brought 2 piglets to the bus, and was ready to leave with the other 2.

The return trip went smoothly, and before dinner we arrived at the Ark! Lincoln welcomed us and was happy with the piglets! But he told me to quickly go to Miri... Se died last night, and something about her waking up screaming in the middle of the night right before she died?....

Later I guess!

Octavía

Session 18

My greatest Notebook,

Together with Tesla and Lincoln I went to Miri. It was a terrifying sight, you could still see the fear in Miri's dead face. What happened here? There was no physical cause for her dead... Maybe someone used some kind of mutation on her, but then that person should've been here last night...

While I was there I also checked on the Elder, he still looked tired and weak. Longshot was now looking after him. I asked how he was doing and he looked stressed. I gave him some help and advice, and told him that I could visit him twice per day to help with the Elder. I looked like that calmed him down a little bit.

Then it was time to finally clean up our water basin! But Bolt was busy with that bus. Together with Rianna we convinced him to help us. Bolt wanted to go to Harper's floor. Something about pipes to get the water out? The guards were not welcoming us, but after explaining that it was needed for clean water we were allowed to enter the floor. Bolt also brought Max to help and quickly found where they had to be.

It took some time and more of Harper's people started to ask questions and annoy us. I even saw Silas at some point. But for some reason when it looked like it was going to escalate everyone calmed down and became full of joy! It took some time but then it was finally ready. Bolt turned on some wheel and we saw the green water leaving the basin!

I made sure the white powder was added as instructed, and tomorrow it was time for scrubbing...

But before that I visited the amazing Ruby! She looked as great as ever and we started to talk about all the awesome stuff she had. I had zero bullets so not going to buy anything, but still I had a great time! But then Ruby told me about Harper's guys. She was being asked questions about what happened in the tower. And if the people from the 2nd or 3rd floor buy something from her, they have to pay some bullets as tax to Harper!!

What the hell is going on here! We need to do something about it! We need to get these floors back and help Ruby! Also the museum is on the 2nd floor, which should be free to enter for everyone!!

The next morning we start scrubbing the pool. While we were doing that I told the others about the 1st and 2nd floor. Rianna also heard from others that they were being asked questions about the tower... We decided we had to do something, so after we were done with our scrubbing shift, we went to the 2nd floor.

We started to walk around, and I told stories about the great things Lincoln did, about the clean water and pigs we arranged, and of course about the knowledge we gathered, like the ancient mutant Deadpool!

At the Museum-area we found Beak, who was at work there. We talked a bit and found out he had been told lies by Silas! That bastard had been telling him that Harper had arranged the new men from the tower, taking credit for Lincoln's actions! I rectified that, and told Beak that for evidence he could just go to the ground floor and ask the men themself!

They also thought that Harper was keeping the safe by guarding the door, and all they had to do is pay some bullets?! What is going on here, guards inside the Ark??? Against who?? The only one I could imagine you would need guards against was Harper himself!!

Later my love!

Octavía

Session 19

Wonderful Notebook,

A dark day has come for the Ark... But let me first tell you about the other things that happened last week.

I walked around the Ark a lot, talking to our people, they had to know the truth! I told them about the adventures we had, about the Pure Plant, the Tower, the ancient mutant Deadpool, and the great places and artifacts we found. And I made sure they knew that they couldn't trust Silas' lies!!

But there was more to do, the museum needed attention, we had the water basin to work on, twice per day I visited Longshot and The Elder. He looked stable, but wasn't drinking much...

In the evenings I helped Tesla who was trying to learn our language to Yelena. Tesla was doing amazing and it was a shame I didn't have more time to help her. I hope she can forgive me, but so many things were going on! We learned a few things from Yelena. She came from the south of our map (around R-17), and called it "Elysium". Which we think is a place under the ground. Also the cold that froze her fingers was around O-17. And apparently "Elysium" and "Mimir" were at war? Wasn't The Elder related to "Mimir"?? So many questions...

Halfway the week something happened. Tesla asked me to join them! Harper's men saw 2 persons on the other side of the river which turned out to be Carla and another woman! Together with Rianna, Bolt and Finn we crossed the river on the raft in search for them. We found nothing until suddenly there was a shot! Rianna was hit!

I quickly took cover and stayed hidden for a while... Rianna and Tesla were going inside a building searching for the shooter. I took a look from behind the cover every few minutes, and when I did it again I was shot!.. Ouch! That hurt...

But the shot revealed the shooter's location, which allowed Rianna and Tesla to capture her. They found out Carla was already on her way to the Tower. So me and Bolt took the captured woman to the Ark while the others continued the search.

At the Ark we handed her to Lincoln for questioning. With some help he figured out her name was Shontae, a stalker from the Tower. And the women were planning to attack our Ark to take back "their" men.

Not long after Harper came asking if we got them. We explained that one of them escaped. He started commanding his people around to make preparations for the attack. The potential attack took most of Harper's attention the next days.

The big gun from the bus was put on the watchtower, the flamethrower was put near the gate, and the gate was reinforced. This was after Bolt made sure some armored vehicle was moved inside the gate. It was impressive that he got that machine working, but it was long from finished, seeing how much it struggled with driving straight.

Scouts were send out to the nearby lookouts, and Ava was ordered to go to the Pure Plant to make sure Lutrell was aware of the situation.

Harper's guards were no longer posted at the doors of floor 1 and 2, because he needed them to prepare for the attack. Not long after Harper's symbols on those doors also disappeared during one of the nights!

Yes notebook, the threat of an attack on the Ark isn't good... but it's not the dark day I was talking about... this morning I was visiting Longshot again. And I could see it on his face... things were not good. The Elder didn't move anymore, and was barely breathing. His end was near...

I stayed there for a while.... Elona also joined. And we saw life leaving his body... The Elder was no more... he died... Elona proposed to keep it quiet for some days, but I told her to get Lincoln. It was not her decision alone to take...

Better days will come again!
Love,

Octavía

Session 20

My greatest Notebook,

So there I was... The Elder dead, and my mind was everywhere... what is next? What is going to happen now..?

When I looked up I noticed that Lincoln and Harper joined us. Lincoln was distributing tasks, trying to keep Harper happy by making him in charge of the "Militia", himself in charge of the grub and water, and Elona in charge of making sure the Ark continued as it was going and the people stayed happy.

I tried to help the conversation but was quickly silenced by Harper... I don't think he liked me. But in the end Lincoln managed to get Harper to accept the situation... for now...

The news of The Elder dying was spread among the People. Some didn't care, while others were upset or even thought the Ark was doomed. There was a ceremony planned in 2 days, and Elona asked me to say some words and light the pyre! So that's what I spend my time on, while others were still preparing for an incoming attack, and Elona's people were gathering wood for the pyre.

When it was the day to say goodbye, the People gathered around the pyre, and before lighting the pyre, I said some words about The Elder:

- About how he was before he got sick.

• About how he learned me to read and write.
• About his stories of the Old Age!
• But also about how he got sick...
• And that now finally his suffering is over.
• And also that we will continue the Ark based on his foundation!

Then Lincoln said a few words on how he together with Elona and Harper will lead the Ark. It was time, I took the torch and lighted the pyre. Great flames came from the pyre, someone added booze to it!

But after that came the doubts, what about all the things I didn't mention? Should I've told more? What would The Elder think about my speech? Did I do him justice? Luckily I had Tesla that evening to talk to... Awesome as she is, she listened and calmed me down. So I slept very well...

The next day started weird... Bolt came to me, he asked me if I could learn him to read and write! Yes, Bolt stopped working on all the stuff he works on, to ask me, Octavia, to learn him to read and write?!? Of course I said yes! Everyone should learn to read and write, it will make them sooo happy! Tesla and Ruby were also interested <3, so I started a small class for all people that wanted to learn!

The class started a bit messy, but it went well, until suddenly we heard someone yelling: "They are coming!". I almost forgot, but we were going to be attacked!? I quickly gathered my stuff, prepared extra water and pieces of cloth to make sure I could help anyone that got wounded.

Then the chaos began. Shots were fired, people screaming, flames from the flamethrower! The women came with 2 busses! I didn't really payed much attention to how the fight went, I just made sure I treated the people that got hurt. It was terrible, So many people got wounded, I even had to cut off a limb to save someone...! And then there was Krin. She got hurt very badly, and I tried to save her. But it was too late, she lost too much blood...

Then I heard victory screams! We won! I looked around, was everyone still alive? Yes, Tesla, Ruby, Rianna, and even Lincoln, Finn... But wait, where was Bolt?! I went looking for him and noticed the tracked vehicle being gone... Wait, it went through the gate, over the flamethrower, and through a bus!? Bolt must be there! I looked for him and finally found him inside the tracked vehicle. I checked him, and while he was wounded, he was still breathing... I breathed a sigh of relief...

After all that I looked around for more wounded people, even for wounded women. We should save lives if we can! But it seems they all were dead.. besides the 2 they captured. And according to Harper none of them escaped...

So apparently it was a success, but it didn't feel like that... About 40 women died... and there was a Tower left with all their children...

Love,

Octavía

Session 21

Hey Notebook,

Lincoln had a plan to get rid of Harper. He wanted to offer him the Tower. Yes, that way Harper would leave the Ark! I'm not completely sure how I feel about it... What will he do with those children? Will he stop the Zone-Ghoul eating? But him leaving the Ark was great news! I'm sure Ruby would also love that! <3

Lincoln didn't care about the Zone-Ghoul-eating in the tower. He saw Zone-Ghouls as animals, like our pigs... For some reason it feels different for me... They walk around like humans... where did they come from? Where they human once? The old writings and The Elder never mentioned them... Maybe the Rot had created them? Next time I find one I should cut it open and investigate, see how deep the Rot is in them... Or maybe they are the cause of the Rot? I have to learn more about this...

Tesla also remembered a map on the wall in the chairman's office. And we had the recording with something that could be coordinates on a map. It would be very interesting to visit one of those locations, maybe it could tell us more about Mimir and The Elder's past. We can learn a lot from the past, it could even have answers of how to cure the Rot!

When Lincoln asked Harper he really liked the idea. We would travel together with him to make sure there was a smooth transition and we could check out the map. But first Harper wanted a "wrestling tournament" to celebrate it... Not sure what was fun about that, but apparently a lot of the People liked the idea...

I spend the next day helping the wounded. In the evening it was time for the stupid tournament. Rianna loved the idea and was going to participate, so I made sure I was nearby so I could treat her wounds. Her opponent, Voron, revealed he had 4 arms, but still he was no match for Rianna. Or so I heard, I wasn't really paying attention...

After her match I stayed in the back. People went crazy over this and they were betting their bullets on who would win? Then I suddenly heard screaming! Lincoln called me into the cage, something happened! I saw him dragging away Garrett, and in the cage Tyrell lay on the ground... I quickly checked him, but he was dead. He neck snapped... Wait? did Garrett do that? Weren't they friends?

Since I couldn't do much more I wanted to talk to Tesla about what happened... but she was gone? Where was she? I finally found her with Rianna and Bolt. Something about Conner having killed Tyrell? They were searching for him!

The news spread quickly and more people joined the search. They found him on the 4th floor! We went there and saw Rianna, Tesla and Bolt behind cover. Conner stood next to the water basin with a scrap rifle in his hands. Before I could do anything Rianna set his clothes in fire! Conner screamed and while the flames got bigger he jumped over the edge... dead...

Later I heard from Tesla that she found a weird book in Conner's room. It had burning crosses on the cover... Maybe I should check what that book is about later... Could a book be dangerous and make someone insane?? And was Conner behind all the suspicious deaths in the Ark?

Hopeful Hugs,

Octavía

Session 22

Greetings Notebook,

After Conner died I had a closer look at the book in his room. It was called "Essays of a Klansman". It was talking about a "white master race". It was terrible and parts of it made me so angry, we should destroy this! But after talking to Elona and Lincoln , we decided to put it in the vault, so we could learn from mistakes in the past.

The next day we left for the Tower. We took the bus, and made a stop at the Pure Plant. Lutrell was happy to see us, and even happier to hear that we defeated the women from the tower.

At the tower Harper quickly managed to take over control from the few women left. We also found that map on the chairman's room. And it indeed had coordinates!! I looked the ones from the recording up, and found 3 of those locations on that map. And after comparing it to our map I could even find them there! So I quickly noted the locations on our map.

We also found some artifacts, some kind of engine with a bicycle chain attached to it, a small jar of pills, some other pistol-like device with a cable, and a yellow metal device with small openings which you could close. I investigated the jar, and according to the text the pills would stop pain! Not a bad idea to keep those one me...

In the evening at the tower I went to the room with the dead Zone-Ghouls. It was still a terrible place, but I had to learn more about these creatures! I cut them open and looked at them in detail. They had great amounts of Rot in them, but for the rest they looked very similar to Pure-Ones, and it was clear that they also were not that far off from humans... Completely different than beast like our pigs for sure.

So could it be that they once were humans? And huge amounts of Rot changed them into this?...

The next morning we travelled back to the Ark. Later that afternoon a vehicle with 5 people came towards the Ark over the river from the South-West. There was a name, Noatun on it. They saw us and went towards the Ark. The 5 people on it looked... exactly the same?! One introduced himself as Farzad 17. The others were also Farzad, but with another number (9, 23, 25 and 29).

We had a weird conversation with them, let me try to summarize it here:

• Noatun is a power, or group or something which owns oil rigs in the water.
• Oil rigs are floating buildings that get fuel out of the ground below the water.
• Noatun sends people to those oil rigs.
• The Farzads work on one of these oil rigs, but they have a boss called Xerxes.

• Xerxes is what they call a driod, which is a machine, not a human?
• They don't agree with Xerxes, so they left the oil rig and came here.
• Another weird thing is that Farzads are born big like this, it's unclear how they learned to do things...
• Also they are only between 1.5 and 3.5 years old?!
• They want our help to defeat this Xerxes, because he doesn't care about Farzad's lifes, he sees them as consumables.
• Also normally every few months a new ship (which is how they call a water vehicle) arrives from Noatun which brings new Farzads.
• This ship now stopped coming, so they think if we get rid of Xerxes, they can live there in peace.
• Apparently their oil rig is to the South if you follow the river. It's on a big open water and they like living there on the water...?
• There are about 10 other Farzad's on the oil rig, and a few scientists and 2 doctors called Sadek and Lona!
• They want to help us build a ship if we help them, and also offer fuel.

So this is all very weird and confusing... Could their story be true? Should we help them? It does sound exiting, we could learn a lot from this. Their technology sound advanced, and maybe doctor Sadek knows more about the Rot? But it's on the water.... a LOT of water...

Lot of love,

Octavía

Session 23

Awesome Notebook!

We agreed that we would help the Farzads! This was terrifying and good news at the same time! It would be very dangerous, but we could learn a lot from this, and who knows, maybe learn more about the Rot and how to get rid of it!

But they would help us build a water vehicle, which they called a "boat". We first went through the Ark in search of materials. And you never guess what we found... Harper's old room had something hanging on the ceiling, and the Farzads explained that it was a boat!?!

We took it down, and together with Bolt they fixed it such that it would not sink. The other problem was that we couldn't swim... At least most of us, Rianna demonstrated she already could swim... well, at least she wasn't sinking... But seems they didn't have a quick solution for the swimming, so I guess I shouldn't fall off the boat... :(

That evening me and Tesla were further investigating the map from the Tower. We succeeded in mapping it to our own map. But there was something about that number 1965 above it. I had seen numbers like that before...

Of course, Deadpool!! His book had a number on the cover. I looked it up and indeed, 2055. A higher number... And in some old chronicles I found 2140... And I also had a look into The Elder's noted. Yes, they also had numbers.. 2280 and up to 2291!

It should be related to the time... And then Yelena pointed out that "now" was 2302. So what would they mean.. I guess it had to be years, that's the only thing that made sense! But that would mean that this map was already 337 years old?!! That explained all the weird things we couldn't recognize! And Deadpool lived 247 years ago!!

The next morning we left with the boats. I was on the first (Farzads) boat together with Tesla. The other boat was behind us being pulled with a rope. The journey went smooth. The west side of the river had a lot of ruined buildings. After a few hours we saw a big wheel on the east side. Tesla noticed movement, and with her binoculars she saw Zone-Ghouls (or Pure-Ones?) climbing the big wheel and jumping around in it.

Shortly after that the Farzads took a big circle around some kind of island. Apparently it was a floating settlement which the Farzads rather avoid...

After a long day on the water we noticed the effect of the Rot. I asked a Farzad about the Rot on the water. He explained that Rot could 'float' around here, and sometimes be there and sometimes not. And he had a theory that if you saw a lot of fish swim away from a direction, that there would probably be Rot there... interesting...

Then we arrived at a big open water! There was no land anymore in front of us, just water... But in the distance we did see some things, which the Farzads explained were the oil rigs. But one of them was on fire! When we got closed we also saw 2 small boats coming from another oil rig. And then, from nowhere a huuuuge explosion! A big ball of fire came from the oil rig. Metal and other stuff was thrown through the air in all directions, and a big black cloud of smoke went up in the air.

I had never seen something like that... If there was anyone near that oil rig he wouldn't have survived... what could cause such a huge explosion... that was not from just a bottle of booze... Maybe their stories were true? and there was a lot of that 'fuel' which they got from the ground below on that oil rig?

We tried to avoid being seen, but not soon after the 2 small boats came towards us. There were Farzads on them. When they were in talking distance I tried to convince them to join us against Xerxes. I told them they could be free of him! I almost convinced them... But afraid I didn't in the end...

Big hugs,

Octavía

Session 24

Dearest Notebook of all!

After the Farzads left we decided to go to one of the Oil Rigs where Xerxes was not on. While climbing a big ladder we suddenly heard some weird noise in the distance. It turned out to be big flying machines! They were pretty far away, and Bolt was mentioning some letters that were on them... e... l.. y... s... i... u... m... Elysium!

We quickly found cover, and the flying machines didn't seem to come closer. From the Farzads we understood that Elysium was their enemy. And Mimir also!

While we waited till the machines were gone a man in a weird black rot suit found us. He told us his name was Ronald, and turned out to be more normal (not 3 years old like the Farzads, and no similar looking persons).

We explained why we were here, and I don't think he would mind if we took care of Xerxes. He lead us to another place, and while walking there I asked about his rot suit. It turned out not to be a rot suit, but a suit meant for diving in the water. They even had a way to breathe while underwater?

The room he lead us to had chairs, a table, some crates with grub, and maps! I quickly looked at them, and found a way to explain to Ronald where we came from.

Soon after a woman joined us, she was called Lona. One of the doctors! I asked her a lot of questions, and soon she explained a device she was earing was called a "stethoscoop". A device which allowed her to listen to someone's heart! And I could try it out, it was amazing... It was like I was inside someone, and my ear was next to the heart?!!

We also learned a bit more about Noatun. It was a dome under the water filled with breathable air, and they all came from there. Also Lona was convinced that the boat (that was now 3 months late) would still come. Ronald was less convinced about that... Maybe the dome even collapsed? But the only one that might know more about that would be Xerxes

Also they had no mutations like us.. were they ancients? About those mutations, Lona was really curious about it, and wanted to investigate us. So Rianna made Lona dance! And Finn made her very happy about it afterwards!

I asked more information from Lona, how did she heal people? did she had things written down? She pointed me to a big book called "Medical Diagnosis & Treatment". I took some time to look it in, it was very complicated and had a lot of terms that didn't make any sense to me. It was from 2057. But there wasn't much more time to read in it. Lona told me that if I wanted to read more I should go to the library... A library, I learned it was a room full of books?!! But it was on Xerxes's oil rig. Another reason to go there!

Bolt who apparently disappeared was now back. He found 2 persons which turned out to be technicians: Scarlett and James. Since it was getting dark Ronald and Lona left us and we could eat some of they grub if we wanted.

Then the discussion about what next took place. It was us and the Farzads. I still wanted to help them, but Lincoln had apparently changed his mind. He didn't saw the Farzads as real humans anymore, and thought they had a good life? Also he was afraid if we got rid of Xerxes that they would not be able to produce oil without them. How many oil do we even need, there should be plenty of barrels here!

But it also became clear the Farzads didn't know all. After asking if Xerxes was really a machine, or just part-machine they were not even sure?! Still, we should make sure they were treated as humans, and not "killed" as soon as they were not able to do their job anymore. Not that that was mentioned in those words, but it was pretty clear... "broken" Farzads were never seen again by anyone...

Love,

Octavía

Session 25

Hi friendly Notebook!

So we decided to go to Xerxes the next day. Not trying to kill him, but first trying to talk to him to get him to treat the Farzads better. The night we spend on the oil rig.

We took our boats and went to Xerxes's oil rig. But halfway there was a loud thud against the bottom of our boat. And more thuds were heard on both boats. On the second boat it even made a hole in the floor! We went full speed to the oil rig and quickly jumped off the boats.

Farzad23 stayed a little longer on the boat to turn off the engine. But then it happened, another loud bang and the boat capsized! Farzad23 felt into the water and started screaming. There were large fish-creatures in the water biting him. Rianna didn't wait a second and jumped in trying to safe him. She didn't look comfortable in the water at all, and I was afraid she would sink!?! Luckily Bolt threw a rope to her and Rianna managed to get out of the water together with Farzad23.

Farzad23's leg looked terrible. I wasn't sure if it could be saved, but tried to stop the bleeding and bandaged it. I also gave him one of my pills, hopefully that would stop the pain.

There was a man calling us. He was dressed just like Lona, so that must be Sadek, the other doctor! We managed to get Farzad23 up the ladder, and followed Sadek to the sickbay. I told Sadek that I already bandaged him, but it seems he had better material here. He replaced all the bandages. The new ones looked so clean and white! He also put some weird fluid on the wounds, saying it would help against inflammations? I wish I had access to such awesome materials!

After a while there was a new Farzad that told us Xerxes wanted to talk to us. We followed him to a very nice place on the oil rig. It was a nice and clean room, with awesome furniture. One wall had a huge window that overlooked the oil rig, and another wall was filled with books!! That must be that "library" Lona was talking about!

A man was sitting in a chair, that must be Xerxes. He didn't look like a machine at all?! I introduced us all, and explained why we were there: to get him to treat the Farzads as normal people.

His reaction was... interesting... He explained the Farzads were "clones", and were not normal people, but were "grown". Not sure what he meant with that, but it became clear quickly that he saw the Farzads as less than human, and that he saw himself as better than humans, or even as "perfect"...

I tried to talk sense into him. Explaining that the Farzads had feelings like any humans, that they could learn and evolve. But it was not really convincing him. We called for Farzad17 to join us to explain his point of view. Bolt volunteered to get him, and while Farzad17 was there five minutes later, Bolt didn't return...

Farzad17 first seemed anxious, but after a comforting shoulder tap from Finn he suddenly was very calm. The discussion only really went into a positive direction when Finn explained some of the benefits this could bring for Xerxes. That the Farzads would work better if they were happier, and that they couldn't be replaced if no new boat arrived.

Meanwhile I started to doubt myself... Why couldn't I convince Xerxes? What did I do wrong? Didn't Xerxes want his people to be happy? Should I've really just have talked about technical benefits this would bring?

Farzad17 also had an interesting request, he wanted to get a real name! And it became... Collin! A great choice! So we agreed that they could get their own name, that Xerxes would start giving the Farzads compliments, that he would give them other jobs if they were wounded, and that they could go back with the next boat if they couldn't do their job on the oil rig anymore.

Xerxes then noticed his boat! We also saw it through the window, it was going around on the water. He got angry, apparently Bolt was in it... So that's were he was... A discussion started about our rewards that were promised by the Farzads. But it became clear that that boat wouldn't become part of it...

I myself, still a bit in thoughts started to look at the wall of books. But there was another weird device. I started to check it out... it was made of a dark material, and had one round glass eye. There also was a small square surface that could be folded out. Then suddenly an moving image appeared on the square surface!

It was amazing, like I was looking to the world at another place and time! There was a big building, with 6 people in white rot suits walking away from it. Behind them there were lots and lots of children, but not normal children, they had mutations?! There also was a sign... wait.. Eden! And.. Command Centre Delta?! Wait, was Eden at the location of Command Centre Delta? And these children... mutants... how long ago was this? Could that be where we came from?

Big Hugs,

Octavía

Session 26

Hi trusty Notebook!

Rianna and Collin were going to get Bolt. And while the others were talking to Xerxes I was looking at this "library". But I couldn't find any book that could help me get closer to curing the Rot. It was all stories from the past, still very interesting, but not what I was looking for now. When I asked Xerxes about it he suggested that I would ask Sadek about that.

Also we wouldn't get his boat as a reward, but Xerxes could arrange another small boat for us. Lincoln was negotiating about helping Xerxes with their enemies and get "oil" as reward. I suggested food, since if their supply boat wouldn't come anymore, they would need that. Xerxes agreed that they would need food in 1-2 months if no supply boat would arrive, and that they would have too many oil by then. So a trade proposal was made.

While the others were going to help preparing the boat, I was going to check up with Sadek. It seems he was preparing to remove the leg of the Farzad. I suggested that I could help, but he disagreed. Something about me being not clean enough and causing infections... I was allowed to look from behind a glass window, so I accepted it.

What he did was weird and amazing. It was all so clean, and he worked very methodical. I think he even used some device to burn the wound so it would stop bleeding, cauterizing he called it...

I asked him tons of questions afterwards, I could learn a lot from this! But after a few question it seems he wasn't impressed by my knowledge and suggestions, and gave me a book.

It was called "First Aid Manual". It was amazing! It explained what you needed to do when someone got wounded. This could really help me in the future and I was going to read it a lot! But there were also things not explained, like how to cut off a leg like Sadek just did. This book mostly stopped with sentences like "has to be treated at the hospital" or "call 112". Not sure what they meant with that last one... Also it didn't mention the Rot...

I walked back to the boat with the book open, still reading it, and we left. It was a little later, while I was still reading when I heard some commotion. There was one of these flying devices going after us! It caught up with us and a loud voice asked "Who are you?", "Are you Noatun?", "From which major power are you?". Tesla answered the question, and seems she did that correct, since they left. They still said something about mutants and remains while flying away.

Time to go back to the Ark! We went past the floating island, were we saw that the people had darker skins, it were tens of people at least, some were in boats with a wooden stick above the water, and even 1 person with wings was seen!

We continued to the Ark, were the temple was almost finished! In the evening Tesla and me were looking at the device with the moving images again. It was then when i noticed it, it was not easy to see, but on the background it was... The Elder! Yes, it was him, a lot younger then we know him, but it was him for sure! One of the persons in the Rot suits.

Tesla had the amazing idea to put the device at the temple to show everyone were we came from. We showed it to Elona and she recognised the small child in The Elders arms. It was herself! I couldn't agree or deny it... it was hard to know for sure, but it made Elona very happy, and she agreed on the idea for the temple!

The next days we also talked to Yelena. She was doing well, becoming part of the Ark, and learning our language. We learned that the flying devices were "helicopters". And she was surprised that Elysium still had helicopters. Also we learned about "rakjete", apparently devices which Mimir used to go to their homes with the stars.

And of course every day I spend a morning to learn people that were interested reading & writing. Even Bolt, while very busy with his armored vehicle, was there often!

Lovely Hugs,

Octavía

Session 27

Dearest Notebook!

A few days after we showed the moving images of the Elder to Elona, she came to Tesla. She had weird memories of The Elder carrying a secret box. Which she was only allowed to open after The Elder was gone. Tesla called me and Finn to help searching it.

We went to The Elder's room. We looked everywhere, and at some point Flux found something! Hidden away, a small metal chest. It wouldn't open, and had a weird rotating disc on it. Numbered from 0 - 90. Also a name, "SentrySafe". But i've never heard of that word before. I tried each number on the disc, but it didn't matter, it wouldn't open.

We asked Bolt to help, his acid should be able to open it, as long as it wouldn't ruin the stuff inside! Bolt managed to remove the disc with his acid, and after that he started to remove small pieces from behind it... and then, he got it open!!

Inside there was a pile of papers. I started looking through it. They mentioned Research progress, but the rest was unreadable... While going through it a small card felt out of it. It wasn't paper, but some other material. On it was a picture of The Elder, and some words like ID CARD, "EDEN SECURITY", "SECURITY LEVEL ALPHA" and "ACCESS: ALL SECTORS". It was clear it was related to Eden, and something about access... I asked Elona if we could take it with us to Eden. No idea how it would help us, but maybe it could...

We found more in the box, also a picture, and The Elder was in it! And another one from that moving image. One person was crossed out. There was also a small round device, with a rotating arrow in it. I recognised the N E S W letters on it, they were also in a similar order on our map! It had to do with directions!

After playing around with it we found out it... always pointed towards Elona? So weird. But when we took it further from her, and turned our map in a way that the N was in the same direction as on the device, the rotation of the map was the same as the real world was! What amazing! How could such a small device know where the top side of our maps was??

And the last thing we found was another paper, it was a long list of names... our names! And besides each name something that looked like the mutation we had!! And it was not written... but put on the paper like books are... How could this, The Elder couldn't have written that here... Where we born with our mutations? Elona had Human Magnet written next to her, and in handwriting "keep her safe". And.. that was the same handwriting as the words "Nothing of Interest" on the map, around the location of Eden! Now we really had to go to Eden!

The next days, with some help from Yelena, we figured out that the Research Progress pages were written some sort of "code". Not a real language, but a way to write messages to each other without others being able to read it.

A few days later we left, on our way to Eden! Bolt finished his "APC" as he called it, which we used to travel faster and safer. We made a short stop at the Pure Plant to speak to Lutrell. They were doing well, the Deep One was even calm.

We followed our way to F-20. But not for long, as soon as we entered that area full of trees I felt the Rot! It was so strong.. Finn collapsed! "Out of here!" I screamed! We turned around, back to a safe area. I examined Finn, he would survive...

Love,

Octavía

Session 28

My sweet Notebook!

Tesla made a plan for a new route and we drove to G-21. There were a lot of overgrown ruins. And while we went further into the sector dark clouds appeared, there was lightning, rain... a huge storm! Even inside the APC the walls started to sparkle... I just tried to stay calm, and hoped Bolt and Tesla would quickly find a way out of this. Rianna had a look outside, but quickly closed the door again. I did hear Bolt mentioning something about a weird vehicle on the road. But we decided to not stop for it. It was too dangerous with all the lightning.

A few hours later when we went into F-22 the storm stopped. Tesla found a weird building with a huge door with some vehicle tracks disappearing into it. She opened it and we walked inside together with Rianna and Lincoln. Then some beasts appeared! Since it was dark I quickly lighted the area with my Luminescence mutation. Rianna set one of them on fire! Tesla shot one with a rifle and while one of them bit Rianna, Lincoln bit the beast, which appeared to be some kind of big dogs.

We searched through the area we found, and found Grub, Water and a weird small device. I quickly figured out it was dangerous! If what I saw was correct, the device could explode and kill people...

There was a pin you could pull, then you should throw it i think, and a few seconds later the device would explode... I gave it to Tesla, she could throw better than me. Lincoln took the dead dogs with him, so we had fresh meat for dinner tonight!.

We continued in the APC to F-23. There were tall roads in the sky, build on pillars. We were looking for a place to spend the night, and found one that had a weird yellow M sign. There were broken tables and chairs. Seems that this might be a place were people sat and eat? So that's what we did! I prepared the dogs and we had a great meal!

We went to sleep inside the APC. During the night Finn woke us up. There was singing? Outside 4 figures walked, the had 2 torches and were singing. Tesla was going to have a closer look, and Bolt started the APC engine!? What a noise, why would he do that? It could attract Zone-Ghouls! But while that all was going on, the 4 figures ignored it all. They walked towards the building with the M, and there someone said some words in a weird language, and they put down 2 small packages.

We figured out the packages contained very small humans! I think they are called "babies". They had blue lips... they were cold! Rianna warmed them. She picked one up, and so did I. It was... amazing... so small, with small fingers, small nose... all soooo small. The one I was holding was sleeping, it looked so peaceful.

I was walking after the others, but didn't really noticed what was going on. Apparently they tried to return the babies to the 4 figures. But they didn't want them. They were not the chosen ones, or something like that. Also they had some kind of mutation or power that could confuse someone. That's how they managed to get past Rianna who tried to stop them, without saying a word...

Tesla figured out that one of the women was sad, and I noticed she shed a tear. We decided to let them go, and we would try to take care of these babies. We couldn't let them die in the cold night. And this way we would have new people for the Ark!

We went back to sleep in the APC, with one of the babies next to me. My body heat should be able to keep it warm. We should also give them a name... hmm... something from where we found them? Like Mac and Donald?

Yours,

Octavía

Session 29

Lovely Notebooky!

I woke up to the sound of a baby crying... What to do? Of course, he must be hungry! I mixed some grub with water into a porridge and gave it to him. Yes, it worked!

Later I learned that Finn looked around a bit last night, and he found the remains of some other babies... So they were not an offer to someone like Lincoln was wondering. They were just left here to die...

Travelling in the zone was no place for babies, so we decided to bring them to the Pure Plant (the closest safe place). We went through F-21 to avoid the lightning storm section. It was barren, there was a long fence and a building with vehicle wrecks around it. But not much else.

At the Pure Plant Lutrell was happy to look after the babies for a few days. We told him that we found them, and it reminded him of something.. He brought one of the Pure-Ones over. Her name was Freckles and she was a scout. She heard things about a "Nova" cult around that area, and wanted to join us to figure out more about them.

So we left together with her. But only till F-23, the area where we found the babies. There we dropped her off so she could investigate further. We continued since we finally wanted to go to Eden!

First to E-24. An even more desolate area with some yellow plants.. Then Tesla saw some small buildings. She was going to have a look and it turned out there was a mutant called Ohm there who had pigs for friends. Also there was a huge round hatch in the ground. He mentioned Plutonia lived there, and that he could get her so we could meet.

Before we were really sure we wanted that he already started stomping on the hatch, and it slowly opened. Steam and smoke appeared from it, and a few minutes later 3 persons. One of them we recognised: One of the man that left the babies!

The woman, which we learned was called Plutonia started talking. Apparently she was convinced the world would end. She was talking about some writings, and that a sign would be given by the birth of a child that would emits light. That's the reason why they were leaving all the other babies to die, they were waiting until they got one that could give light?!

What is wrong with her? Giving light is just a mutation like any others! I can give light, and was born looong ago. And did the world end? Nope!

When we were about to leave there was some commotion. A guy in a sparkling silver suit started yelling that Abbetina escaped? Apparently Rianna saw her run towards the pig sheds. Plutonia also was panicking. We decided to leave, we were not interested in these weird stories...

When I entered the APC things got more clear. There was a pregnant woman in there. I guessed it was Abbetina. While we drove away we learned from her that she was afraid they would kill her child if it didn't give light. Also she told us that we should do something about Plutonia, since she had the key to end the world? This again sounded crazy...

But what if something of it was true... she explained there was a long cilinder that could go into the air and explode. Probably like that grenade we found, but a LOT bigger... The Nova cult was with about 20 people. Maybe we should go back there soon... but first.. Eden!

We arrived in D-24, and Tesla figured out there was no Rot here! Which makes sense if Eden was here! The area was still desolate. Then we saw a road towards a hill.. it reminded me of the moving pictures we saw! Was it here? There was a large natural stone wall, with a big metal door in it. Big enough for the APC to go through. And the sign! "Eden - Command Center Delta"

Tesla and Rianna tried pushing or sliding the door open. While I helped Bolt to search for a lock. I inspired him by the stories of Eden and what we could find here, and it helped! In a small alcove we found some weird mechanics. But Bolt could make sense of it. After some repairs a small red light turned on. Of course! We had the Elder's "Access Card"! When we tried holding that next to it, the door started to open!

We went inside. First we tried to see for a way to close the door, but that mechanic was broken beyond repair. I think I saw bullet holes?! We drove downwards into the hill. It was dark and damp there. Finally we arrived at a larger area. With a metal door, and a red light! Before we tried to enter I saw a sign. It showed an image... it was.. a map! A map of Eden! It looked like 2 big circles under the ground. And I figured out where we were.

The red light turned green with the card, and we entered. There was dim blue light, and first we went down till we arrived at the biggest circle area. There was a long wide hallway, broken furniture, bullet holes, skeletons which were tens of years old... Lincoln found some names on leftovers of clothes... but they were a bit weird, like Pvt Johnsen, Cpt Smith...

Then we heard a loud shriek!...

Forever yours,

Octavía

Session 30

Sweet Notebook!

After we heard that shriek, Rianna started running in the direction she thought it was coming from. Lincoln started running in the other direction?! Tesla and Bolt were going after Rianna, so I also went in that direction with Finn and Abbetina, but in a slower pace.

A few minutes later we found Tesla investigating some tracks. The tracks led to an empty bed in a room full of bunk beds. I did notice some kind of vent above the bed... Maybe someone went in there, but then he or it should be small.

We continued the search to the sound, and finally found Lincoln! He just left an interesting room. There were all weird devices, and there was a big desk with a note on it! I read the note. It was describing what seemed to be the last weeks of the dead guy in the chair. There were living a lot of people in this place, and at some point they didn't have any food anymore. There was an uproar, and in the end the only solution the guy in the chair saw was to kill himself!

But all this dead... it happened 130 years ago. That's long before we supposedly left this place? We didn't grow up between these corpses, right? Maybe our answer isn't in this floor, but we have to go down further! The note also mentioned Elysium... They hoped Elysium would save them... But that didn't happen I guess. The note also mentioned "PO - Print Office". What was that? Another faction?

While I was reading the note, some devices started to give light! They had text on them... "Turn back now!"... Someone was trying to scare us away? Then we heard something. Tesla, Rianna and Bolt went after it, while we looked for the door to the lower floor. When we tried to open it with The Elders "ID Card" we heard a voice "Leave this place!". Lincoln found the box that made the sound... but it was empty? It probably had a recording of the sound like that other device we found in the Tower.

Behind that door it was cleaner and warmer, and there were no skeletons. Bolt couldn't wait going in. I told him it would be smarter to wait for the others, but he went anyways. The door closed after a little time, so I kept opening it until I could convince Bolt to wait on this side.

When the others returned they told us they saw a small creature that travelled through some kind of air channels. Tesla left some food for it. We went to the lower floor! And there was the text Mimir! We went right and found a room filled with hundreds of cages. Each cage had a small bed, and a sign with a name and diagrams? What are those names.. wait, Malf... It are our names! Were we born here? Is this how you raise babies? Do we need cages in the Ark?

Soo many questions, but we all started to search for a cage with our name on it! We all wanted to know where we were born and raised! There were also drawings hanging on the wall. And Lincoln found one he recognised, but he didn't know why... And while we all were investigating this room, one person didn't... Bolt

Curious as he was he apparently continued alone. Some time later we heard him scream! We all ran towards the sound, and I saw Bolt lying on the ground and blood everywhere on the floor! Some kind of monster was attacking him!

While the others took care of the monster I quickly bandaged Bolt his leg, and tried to stop the bleeding. After the fight we took some time to calm down. The monster looked human, but very mutated. As if it had 5 or more mutations at the same time... Since we were all tired and we thought it was late, we decided to spend the night in the room with the cages. We barricaded the door to be not surprised during the night...

Love, love, love,

Octavía

Session 31

My Sweet Notebook!

I'm still a bit dizzy... not feeling great... and you never guess where I am. But let me first continue where I ended last time...

We slept in the room full of cages. Tesla came to me right after she woke up. She had a weird dream about her being here as a small child, something about a discussion between a woman and The Elder. They were talking about a failed experiment... About her wanting to destroy it all, but The Elder was not agreeing to that...

After Tesla calmed down a bit we all continued our search for a cage with our name. After a few hours I finally found it! There it was, a cage with the name Octavia! It was weird, seeing your own name like that... The papers had charts... about my growth, weight, all that kind of stuff... But not much time to look through it all. I put it in my backpack and we continued our search!

We went to the area where Bolt was attacked... a voice warned us "Go away you failed experiments!"... "This is a restricted area!"... It didn't stop us. There were 12 doors here, and while looking through one Tesla suddenly saw a pair of eyes! Not long after there was that voice again "I warned you!", and there was lightning everywhere! We ran towards the door! Tesla and Lincoln were paralysed, but we managed to get them to safety!

After a time it stopped... Lincoln figured out there were stripes on the floor which we had to avoid to not get hit. While we wanted to continue Rianna took a look at another door from which she heard some noise. She was surprised by a monster running at the door with a bang. Rianna felt on the floor and the lightning turned on again! She passed out. Luckily I could get her back on her feet again.

We continued into a cold dark room. There were weird cylinders that looked frozen?! And in some of them there were humans! Dead we guessed... since who could survive such cold... After Bolt was done playing with an empty one we continued.

We arrived in a room full of weird cylinders with water and body parts floating in them. Not human, but monster-like mutated body parts. Some also had babies in them... It was scary... What did they do here? Then Bolt turned on a machine... some square gave light, and there was text on it! I helped him read it.. it was a story.. about us I think?

About a project called 'Eden'. And they called us 'test subjects'... Some of us had weird behaviours... They installed defense mechanisms, the high voltage is what the lightning was... But it also mentioned a gas with "fentanyl"? And "microwaves"?? Later they wanted to terminate the test subjects.. But not all of the scientists agreed... It seems The Elder and some of the other scientist left the building in the night, with all of us... It ended with the writing saying they will continue the project Eden...

Then the door closed! And there was a 'shhh' sound.. the gas! We all ran towards the doors! I followed Tesla to one door, but it was locked... After some time the gas stopped. It turned out Bolt found a green button that stopped the gas. There was a weird creature with the others... another mutant? It was Endel! He knew a lot about this building, and shared it with us! He was friendly because Tesla left him food and drinks! We learned that he was also one of the "test subjects", same as us! Like a brother!

We continued with him and with Bolts spit no door blocked our way. We finally came in a room with a lot of machines, all turned on. Some of them had an image of some kind of round room with a large metal tube... And behind one of them a woman... Dr. Retzius!!! She had a weird looking pistol... and said "stupid failed experiments"...

A fight started.. Rianna ran towards her, and I blinded her with my mutation. The woman did some things on the machine, and called Melvis. Also a voice started to count down from 10 minutes... Finn shot Melvis down, and Bolt locked the door behind us, because apparently she also opened the doors we saw earlier... Then I spit my Rot on Dr. Retzius, but it happened again, same as last time I tried to spit it on someone... My spitting aim was terrible, and I hit myself... ouch, all went black...

And this, dear notebook, was the last thing it remember before I woke up here... Tesla filled me in on a few things that happened. They killed Dr. Retzius, and they found a big machine... with only 6 places to sit... Some of us entered, some didn't... Tesla, Rianna, Bolt and Endel sat down, and Tesla put me also in a chair...

Then, she told me, when the counter hit 0, everything started to tremble, and the machine went up into the sky?! It ended up where we are... somewhere with the stars... In a big floating city... Firsts I didn't believe it, but she let me look through the window... there was black everywhere, and a blue and green ball... That's where the Ark is, she told me... And we are now in Mimir... To start a new life here, without the Rot, but also without.. the Ark.... Can't we really go back? I will miss them all... I will miss Ruby... <3 ... I will miss her so much...

And you, my lovely notebook, are almost full... I think I have to say goodbye, and close you...

Forever yours,

Octavía