Bolt Logs

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

1 - Adventure Time - We are going to find awesome stuff!

Voices. None that mattered though. I'm busy on this shovel, it broke this morning trying while Sabine was trying to dig our cropland.

More voices.. No one important, but I know them. If Sabine has a working shovel it means she can stay near the Ark to work. Instead of going outside to do what she at least she says she's best in, which is getting in danger all the time. She goes outside and brings me tidbits of things I need to make more important equipment.

Louder voices.. Can't people just be quiet and let me work? Was that my name? She's probably break the shovel again soon, she uses it outside as well. Her gun is still holding, but I saw some breakage near the base that will need repair within a week or two. She needs to be safe, I promised I would help with that. Not that I can do much when she is stalking around, but at least I can make sure her equipment is not too broken.

Yes, that's my name again, but this time it's in Rianna's voice. Sounds like she still has her voice under control, can't be that important then. I already spent my morning working on the Ark's defenses, maybe a little more on thinking about those defenses than actually doing much. I think I now where the best spots are to improve our Ark from outside, but good work needs good preparation as well. And I want to go outside, I want to spend time on unraveling the mystery of that armored monstrosity.

"Bolt!", definitely something happened or still happening, guess I should look up and hear what's going on.

Well that was definitely interesting! I know, I know, not very friendly of me, people disappearing is not a good thing. But they left to find the Pure Plant! Lincoln actually thinks it exists, a place with good water. We are in dire need of proper water since our own reserves were turning bad. Algae, or whatever those things in the water are, we are definitely in trouble if we can't use that water anymore.

Lincoln sent part of his crew to investigate, he must really be sure to risk his people like that. His people? Yes I guess. But those are our people as well! We are slowly creeping to dangerous levels of people in this place. Less to feed, but also less to help.

Bad news! Well actually, have to keep the smile of my face, good news as well! Tesla is taking is out there as well! Lincoln is a good guy and so those people need to be retrieved, if at all possible. But the chance of going outside that far from the Ark! The possibility of actually seeing all the interesting things from outside. Deciding myself if the stuff that is lying around there is useful instead of getting what the stalkers think is useful. Oh, Elder! The excitement will probably keep me up this night, working on last minute preparations. I need to finish things so I can leave safely and I need to check all my tools. And, oh yeah, need to grab food and water as well, I Think I have some extra in my stash.

We're going to the Pure Plant, somewhere along the river to the north east they say, though the river sure does not look pure. It should be a little more than week there and back again, though the others have been away for almost two weeks. It's dangerous out there, shouldn't I be more afraid? The excitement is totally overruling the fear. I am ready!

Away we go!
Tesla leads us north east, making our way to a stone spire attached to a big building, the main building used to have a roof I guess, but most of it has fallen down and lies in wreckage inside the building. Tesla says the tower can help us have a look around to see what's around us. That actually makes sense I guess, the more you see, the better preparation. Though I'm sure if I had to make my way through the world alone I'm not sure I would know which way I was looking when I got down again. Yup, definitely going to let Tesla lead the way.

We made our way into the building, which appeared to be a big open room. Rotting wooden benches were either strewn around or set up in rows pointing towards a higher part of the room. Looks like a spot on the raised floor to speak to all the people sitting in the benches. And behind that spot there was a big cross with a person attached to it. Why would anyone do something like that? No mutations on the guy though, too old for mutations? Lived before the trouble started maybe? No clue and actually not really important.

Luckily Rianna thought to bring a rope, the inside of the tower was in a bad state and climbing up there was going to be hard. After a clumsy attempt on climbing up I decided Tesla, Rianna and Finn would be find going up with just the three of them. I stayed in the main room together with Octavia, Lincoln and Flux. Flux.. Finn's little friend, well maybe not that little. That dog was always chewing on my things, couldn't leave anything lying around or the beast was slobbering all over it. Some things he took away and ate whole. What a waste! Though the monster sometimes just lies next to me when I am tinkering with stuff and allows me to pet it. I'm sure it's just doing that to make me like him so he can slobber on my things without me getting angry, or so that I allow him to take what he wants!

Flux followed me around as I made my way to the raised part. Some kind of cubby was made inside the small closed like thing. It held a box with a lock on it. An actual lock! My first prise, it also had the key still inside it and it was in working order. I was so breaking that thing out and taking it with me! Some kind of bowl with dirty stuff was inside, I knocked it out of the box to make sure I didn't get anything on me. The bowl was of a kind of material I didn't actually know, it was yellow and some kind of metal I think and if I cleaned it I think it would shine like metal. Let's just take it with me and find out later if it's of any use.

Octavia found a big book of somekind, she said she couldn't read it, but hey I couldn't read much anyway so that would not make a difference for me. If she's happy with things like that she's not going to be wanting any of the real interesting things.

After a while the others got down from the tower with stories of the view from above. We would be making our way to another big building in the north, another building with a cross. No idea! But I know where to look for possible interesting things in a building like this now. To the north west there was mostly wild growth and mists above murky water. Harder to cross and probably dirtier as well. To the north east there was an interesting big open space between broken buildings, with fences, chains and some kind of scaffolding. A good place to find a wealth of new broken things. But it did not seem to have a good place to sleep the night as we would probably reach the place nearing the evening.

Another building with a cross
This definitely was not the same kind of cross as the building we left behind earlier, it didn't have a person attached to it either. It was also a lot bigger and had no tower like the previous one. A broken down car was standing before it, it also had the same cross on the side. Lot's of interesting cabinets inside, but those were already empty. We made our way inside to search for interesting things and to make sure we had a defendable place to sleep, somewhere on the 5th floor sounds pretty nice!

This place is the absolute worst, it was filled with dead people. Not the ones we normally see, but these were ancient. All but the bones were left of all these people and none of them were taken care of and burned. These must be of before the disaster that struck the world. Octavia verified that the bones were of non mutant and were looking a lot better than ours would look when we died.

We made our way up, I was able to grab small things now and then. They would help me build things, though I didn't have much time available than to make a single extra arrow for Tesla's bow. After a few stairs and hallways we came to a big door, it was far thicker than the others and had a weird big symbol on it. A small circle with three petals around it, some kind of flower maybe? The door was slightly ajar and we could look inside. It smelled awful, but as we looked inside we saw some kind of thick full body orange suit hanging inside.

I looked at Rianna, we shared a quick wordless communication and did one of those exciting, but perchance stupid, things. We rushed inside together, the stench was awful and probably not going to be good for us, we made our quick way to the suit, grabbed it and ran full speed outside again. We slammed the door closed after us and dropped on the ground laughing.

This is awesome! Our adventure has started!

2 - Onwards To Water - Who knows what we will find

We made our way towards a quiet room and I immediately sat down in a corner to examine my new prize. This suit was awesome! I am convinced it will protect us from the Rot at levels nothing I had seen before. Though getting into it was a drag and walking around was even worse. With the hood and mask sight was a lot less and getting holes in it due to a tumble or a fight was a waste.

I don't need that much sleep and time was better spent on making stuff instead of sleep. We decided to divide the night watch among us all and I fell asleep on top of the rot suit making sure no one took it away from me. I trusted most of the group but what if something happened in the night or Flux decided it was his personal toilet. I was going to find out how small I could make it and decide on a good place on my body tomorrow.

I was rudely awakened by shouting voices. Something was happening, who's watch was it anyway? Lincoln, Rianna, Finn and Flux seemed to be missing from our hiding place. The rest of us made our way towards the stairwell, something was happening downstairs. They were in the middle of a fight with Zone Ghouls it seemed. I hate those things, they moved a lot like us, the seemed a lot like us, but they sure as hell were not like us. No real speech, totally wrapped in cloth and always moving it seemed randomly through the wilds. At least that what they told me, I've seen some in the past, but I made sure I was as far as possible away from them. I even had to leave some grub behind when I had to make my way scarce when I was playing around with my armored vehicle. The food was gone when I got back the next time, and not even a thank you note! Not that I could have read it anyway.

Flux was in a bad shape when I got there and Rianna and Lincoln were already swinging their bats with grace and style. This was not the time to run away, but I wasn't going to jump in the middle if I could help myself. I made sure Rianna was mostly between me and the creatures and moved around to distract and harry them into Rianna's spiked bat. The dog was in a bad shape, but after it got behind our defensive row we made quick work of the situation. Why was Flux behind those creatures anyway? Something must have happened, bugger beast, but death wasn't what I want for him.

The rest of the night was quiet and I had some dark time left to repair Lincoln's bat, guess he hit one of those creatures a little bit too hard. I made sure I ate my grub and drunk enough water. I was still feeling bad from the room with the suit environment, but cleaning myself was not worth the water I think. We didn't have too much grub and water for this whole trip, how do those stalkers take care of themselves going outside. I would have to trust Tesla taking care of us for that the following days.

We made our way away from the building with all the corpses, I wasn't going to miss that building. Slowly we were moving through area that had less and less ravage of buildings. The road was still good but the buildings made way for murky water and low growth of some kind of flora I had not seen before. Ruined buildings aren't generally friendly and fun, but at least in buildings you can find interestings things to use in creations.

Tesla told us we were making good time anyway, at least until we had to take a longer route. In the distance we could see some kind of horrid creature. I've heard stories told of what I saw and told the rest what I knew about the Devourer we spotted. It was enormous and rumored to eat people whole! Luckily we were downwind and it didn't sense us, not that we knew it even had a nose to smell us. But we made our way safely further along our route to the Pure Plant.

The water got bigger and according to Tesla we should be close to our destination. Me personally, I had no idea where we currently were and I was sure I had no way of ever getting back without her help. We came upon an island of some sort, and there were buildings of some kind on it. Looked nothing like the buildings I was use to, no windows for one. They seemed like very large cylindrical towers, broad and far too smooth compare to the buildings I know. Also there was some kind of tower, far too slim to keep standing up straight. It looked broken in parts and I don't think it had a long life left as a tower.

I offered to make a raft to get us to the other side and started to look around for good material to build one. I was making good headway when I suddenly got the feeling people were shouting for me to follow instead of continuing my work. Unfortunately we were not going to need a raft after all, the water was only shallow and we could make our way across easily. I was already way behind actually, guess they had been calling my name more than once before I noticed.

On the island we found tracks of people and a dog. Tracks weren't my specialty but the others said these must be of our missing people. Lincoln was definitely eager to quicken up our search. After following a while the tracks spread out suddenly as if something happened to them. I had no idea which to follow and this place surely did not feel safe. The decision were to go was easily made when Finn heard another dog in the distance and he decided that was the way to go.

Let's go find them!

3 - The Machine - It goes kachunk kachunk

Following the pawprints of probably Tank, Felix' dog, we made our way towards a big pool. Tesla was right, this place felt a lot less contaminated then the route we followed here. This wasn't a pool of drinkable water and I guess the sign that was set next to it with the skull and bones on it was trying to tell us not to drink any of it. Big pipes were slushing more fluids into the lake, very interesting! There must be some kind of mechanisme doing that, it would not flow like that by itself. If I get the chance I need to take a look around inside that building where the pipes come from. And if I did not get the chance I guess I had to create the chance.

As I kept my eye on the building and the others were deciding where to go, Tank approached and walked into Lincoln. Barking like crazy and running away again. We followed our way past the interesting building and towards the tall tower. Getting into that building was going to be pretty easy, it was broken down enough to have multiple holes in the wall for entry. Tank was standing on his hind legs against the tower and was barking as if something was up there. A rusty ladder was attached to the tower going up, did that mean Felix was up there?

Rianna and Tesla were going to go up the stairs and investigate. Guess that was the ideal moment for me to have a look inside that building. Ignoring what the others were doing I made my way into the building. I could already hear it from outside, but when I got inside some kind of kachunk kachunk noise was coming from below. Iron grates on the floor, and a wall filled with square knobs, dials and even a big wheel. Oh! Very nice! Hopefully the others took their time and leave me here to have a good look. Maybe even open those grates? They were obviously too heavy for me to lift, maybe some acid would help? But first some testing!

The knobs were some kind of buttons and didn't seem to be doing too much, but the wheel obviously still had a good role to play here. Turning it one way the kachunk kachunk got softer and the other way it would get louder and faster. Maybe something would break if I turned it all the way to the loudest? It was connected in some way to a device with a dial in it as well, it turned to the left when I slowed it down and to the right when I turned it up. Nothing broke though and I guessed if I went outside to check on the pipes the fluids would be going either faster or slower. I left it somewhere in the middle, no idea actually if that was where it was before I played around with it. I took my time to take out one of those dial devices, one that was not doing anything to make sure I could play around with the working parts later.

After a while Octavia came in running shouting something about a big bird and Rianna being attacked by it. Rianna can take care of herself just fine, just one bird was not going to be a problem and she had help from others as well right? I was doing more interesting stuff in here! And I guess I was right and some of the others soon joined me inside as well. Soon after that a huge crash sounded outside as if something big tumbled to the ground and into other things. When Rianna came in as well she was mumbling something about her rope and Lincoln was carrying Felix inside with Tank. The bird had killed Felix and apparently it had a nest on top of the big tower which was now lying on the ground, the whole tower that is.

Guess we were spending the night in here, with Lincoln outside to take care of Felix. They found some stuff in the nest and Tesla was looking through some blue clothes with symbols on it. They also found a book and some extra bullets for me, guess I would actually be able to use my pistol when the need was going to be high. Octavia was almost shining with delight, a second book we found on our travels already. Too bad it held only one useful page. Some psycho babble about a key or a card and there not being hope or something. Nothing interesting.

It was my watch in which I heard a voice, which was kind of spectacular that I actually heard a voice. I wasn't fiddling on anything and more thinking about what more special things we were going to find. Someone asking in a quiet squeaky voice if anyone was there, eh here. Whatever. I took the lamp and made my way outside to have a look. Outside I saw a figure a bit further in the darkness. It was smaller than us, wrapped in clothing and seemed to be looking at me, obviously bothered by the light of the lamp I was holding. What's smaller than us, wrapped in cloth and has problems with light? I quickly turned around and ran back into the building while shouting out Zone Ghoul, Zone Ghoul! This woke everyone up, ready to act, but before anyone could get outside again the creature was already gone. Good riddance!

The next day started of with the death ritual of Felix, he had to be properly burned. Don't think that actually has any meaning, but leaving a rotting corpse is just bad for health. During breakfast, which we are running fast out of, Garrett told us he saw light coming from the big building behind the wreck previously known as tower. Light means interesting things, guess we need to find out what is there!

We found a door next to pipes leading into the building. The door was locked and the wall with the pipes had no holes big enough to go into. Waste of a good lock, but without the key it wasn't useful anyway. Before the others could decide to find another way in I took a deep breath, reached inside myself into the sacks of protected skin inside my throat, gurgled to make them work and spat a green liquid onto the lock. The acid I had within me and was now within the lock quickly ate through the mechanisme of the lock. I pulled the door open and stepped aside with a smile to show the others we could now go inside.

Within was a huge space, mostly dark, but light was coming inside from above. Dark shapes moved in the back of the room. Zone Ghouls again? Or something else?

4 - The Machine Explained - ..and the return of Lincoln's crew

An enormous hall stretched out away from us. Little light came from small dirty windows above and darkness made me squint my eyes to see what was in it. Workbenches, some kind of bags and barrels stored on low raised platforms, a big stair in the back and a smaller spiral staircase of to the right, both leading up. But more interestingly, buzzing sound was coming from more machinery near the back wall in the space between the bigger stairs and the barrels.

The shadowy figures in the back moved away and probably disappeared up the bigger stairs, it was pretty hard to see. Probably because my attention was on the machines and not too much else. But most of the others decided it was a good idea to follow upstairs. Except for Finn and that beast of his, they moved towards the other stairs. I followed towards the stairs with the group first, but halfway I noticed the area around the machinery seemed to be clear of danger, so I changed my course and decided to have a good look there.

More panels
It was more of those cabinets, with panels in the front. More dials, buttons, some kind of slider and writing beside them. Both engraved, probably from old times, and chalked characters were near the buttons. There was a page of paper attached to the panels as well, it held more writing and what seemed like tally marks. Maybe I needed to learn how to read, but I'm not sure it was worth the time I could use for tinkering. And how would I feel in admitting to Octavia that it might be a useful skill? Would she also think I am interested in other text than the technical ones? I needed to think about this. I had to carefully rip corners of the paper where it was attached to the panel and stuffed it in a pocket. Octavia could help me with it later.

I took my time to properly investigate it all, but I would probably have to start opening up things to find out what this was for. I moved the slider up and down, pushed buttons and watched the dials move from green to red. As they were in green mostly and green does seem like a friendlier color I decided green was good and red was bad. So after some playing around I moved everything back to the places I think I found them.

I was starting to think these cabinets, like the earlier ones I found did not actually do something themselves. They were probably attached to other machinery somewhere. To confirm this I broke open the cabinets to have a look inside. The cabinet was filled with wires, leading to the buttons, the dials and to other places outside the cabinet. Buzzing was coming from devices, but no wires were visibly attached to those. I would have to remove them from the backwall to find out I guess, but maybe not right now. I noticed part of the wires leading to a hatch leading down. More interesting places to go!

Not alone
I looked up from the hatch, thinking about opening it, as I noticed voices near. I was probably in a safe place here, I could hide behind the panels and the darkness helped as well. To the right of me were Lincoln, Garrett, Finn and Flux and to the left of me was another larger group I did not know. Lincoln was speaking to them as if he knew them and even used the name of the person in front. Someone called Lutrell, he was a lot older than us and all of them were wearing white/grey clothing and what skin I could see was a lot paler than ours. They actually looked like the thing I saw last night. A lot like Zone Ghouls, but not really. Lutrell was speaking the same tongue as us, though he seemed to have a hard time following Lincoln's words and his words came out slow and careful. Did I mention he was old? Not as old as the Elder, but far older than us or the group behind him. Though they seemed more varied in age then us as well.

What is this place? Apparently this was their home, though they called it something else, some words I did not understand. They obviously wanted us to go away, but that's not going to happen before we got Lincoln's people back. And not before we got what we actually needed, we still needed to find drinkable water. Lincoln convinced them to help us find our people if we would leave afterwards. Knowing Lincoln he cared about getting his people back first, what we were actually going to do afterwards was not decided yet.

Rianna was calling my name, so I guess things were pretty friendly at the moment and I could show myself. I made my way towards Lincoln, Rianna, Finn and the rest. The moment Lutrell spotted me he turned towards me and got agitated quickly. He wanted to know what I was doing there and me telling him that pushing buttons and moving the slider didn't visibly do anything probably didn't help. He shouted something to one of his people and that one moved towards the cabinets quickly to I guess verify if things were still good or not. He told Lutrell things were still looking good, but Lutrell gave him more commands anyway.

After the commands, I followed him towards the barrels. There was some kind of white powdery stuff in there and he took a scoop out of it and made his way with it outside. I'm not really into the chemical stuff, but this sure was interesting! No one was blocking me so I followed him outside. We made our way from the big building, past what was left of the tower, towards the sphere like buildings. What would be in these spheres, if I get the chance I sure was going to have a look. But those were not our destination, behind the spheres were big baths of water. The closest one I could see had pretty clear water, but the further ones were doing worse. The man threw in the white stuff in the nearest pool of water. It dissolved into the water, what did that do? This sure was their water supply, we found it! I tried to ask him questions, but he simply ignored me and started to walk faster when I pressed him for information.

The search, and more
When I got back the discussion was over and they decided it was time to search. Our people were divided over the groups with members of their people as well. I wasn't going to join in the search, I had more important things to do! I was allowed to almost walk everywhere, even with someone tailing me. I was blocked when I wanted to look at the further pools, my new friend had a scared look on his face and I would have to resort to violence if I wanted past him, not going to happen! The rest was open ground for me.

I learned that there was not multiple machines, but this whole island seemed to be one big machine! It cleaned and pumped water around, it was slushing around inside the spheres, but the white powdery stuff seemed the most important part in the process. Running both through pipes above ground and some kind of maze underground, and all controlled from those cabinets and panels. Wow! These people could hardly be foolish Zone Ghouls, these things were complicated and needed careful watching to operate properly. And they knew how to write as I found more of those paper with writing and tally marks.

Return of our people

When I got back the search parties had returned, Lincoln's people had been found. They told us that they were found hiding inside one of the big round buildings, scared of the big bird thing, and extremely hungry. Another group had come by sheds with weird naked doglike creatures inside. They made weird grunting and squealing sounds. Not very interesting compared to what I found out!

5 - The Journey Ends - ..for now..

Finding out what was happening on this island was awesome! Too bad these creatures, were in the way. Creatures? Zone Ghouls? Something else? Something definitely was off here, these aren't really people, are they? They stand like us, move like us, they kind of talk like us. At least the others told us that there were others that could talk as well. This is not something The Ancient spoke of to us. Are Zone Ghouls what happen, when these people are affected by The Rot?

I know Lincoln and the others were trying to find a common ground to get us water without having to take control. But I guess i fazed out a little thinking about these new found mysteries. Would it make things a easier if we took over and made these folks disappear. During the negotiations I remember saying something about us bringing more people to take over. But somehow taking those drastic steps didn't really feel right. I want to go back to tinkering! These thoughts should not be disturbing me this much.

I'm glad Lincoln and then others walked out so I could leave as well. I'm not sure if we struck a deal or not, though if I think about it I know there were some statements of trading valued items or weapons for water. How would we even move all that water back to our Ark anyway? I think I would be able to create a raft somehow, though it would take time and I'm not totally sure the river would be a safe place to travel either. Octavia had the brilliant idea of making my dream come through and fix up the armored vehicle I was working on at home. But even with help from others, it would take some time getting that thing to move. If I would actually allow anyone else to work on that. Specially not, that bastard of a Steward! It would give me something to think about though on the way back and I would start up plans when I get back as well.

The way home
It was already later in the afternoon, but we decided to leave straight away. It made both groups happier if we just left this place behind for now. We would be taking the same way back as we got here, except from that Devourer the route was pretty safe compared to the places we didn't know of yet. We would be taking our time to search a bit along the way to see if we could restock some of our water and food and hopefully find some other interesting things as well. We found some grub and water, a single bullet and a weird kind of blue boat. Close hulled, a shape of a leaf and only two holes in what both Octavia and me think are places to sit. It was obviously missing some kind of paddle to move forwards more easily, but that would be pretty easy to fix I would think.

Home
It was the next day when our home finally came into view again. It was a good sight and I had obviously missed this place. I left the others to explain what happened on our adventure and made my way into the ship towards my private space. Hopefully the place was as I left it and my stuff was all still there. I also needed a bath, I was feeling the fatigue from the trip.

But more importantly, I had plans to make and things to build!

6 - River I Challenge You - ..who's afraid of water..

I've got to get these out of my head and into practice! Another one of those moments where I find out that reading and more importantly writing might actually be a benefit in my trade. Well I work with what I have I guess, I'll just keep making small models and use my tricks on those. Hopefully I can either recognize them later or keep enough of the ideas in my head. But there are so many!

It needs to survive the water, hold a big group of people and we need to be able to take water back with us as well. And stuff we need to trade for the water, I hope someone thinks of that part!

And I need to take rest as well, I am still a bit traumatized by the trip and need a full night sleep. I hate full nights sleep! What a waste of precious tinkering time! I need more lamps in here as well. And more space for my work, I wonder of Rianna will notice if I put my stuff a little into her space. Ah well, bed first.

The tinkering begins!
I wake to the sound of shouting and noise in the background. I slept pretty darn well actually, no idea how long. But it's time to start the real building. I built a small raft in the past to play around with, but the new one needs to be bigger and more durable. People keep on shouting and I guess Rianna is there as well. It doesn't sound like an attack, but something bad happened perhaps. Can't be more important than the savior of our Ark, so I will probably hear about it later. I need to start and need more material and maybe some help somewhere.

I've been building for a while and I know people have been coming in to ask silly questions. I might have been a bit harsh against some. Even people bringing in useful stuff as well. This is marvelous! Did I ask someone for help, guess I did, or maybe someone else? I haven't had any silly questions though, did someone stop them coming to me? Lincoln I would guess, good guy!

Voices again. Someone is trying to get my attention. I look up, it's Jo-Ann. Is it me or am I seeing her a lot lately. Yes, she's been bringing new parts multiple times today. Maybe I should thank her, at least give her notice and listen to her. Yes! What's up?

She mentions enthusiastically that Silas, one of those chronicler peeps, has seen something new. Hah! Probably read something in an old book and thinks that's interesting. But she keeps on and says that Silas has seen moving vehicles of some kind. But I'm working on this raft, I need to continue! Makes me think of my own dream though, I wonder if I can ever get that thing moving. What if others can? Who, none of the other gearheads are able to do that! What if there are other ones out there, like at the Pure Plant. This doesn't make sense! I need to get back to work.

I absentmindedly tell Jo-Ann that it might be a good idea to set up a mission to have a better look. I am interested! Remember to take a good Stalker, maybe Tesla. I'm sure I am missing something there, but before I can tear away my attention from my work and ask her about it she's already gone. Got to ask Rianna later to see if I did something stupid or not.

We go!
The day has come to properly try my new creation. It's the day of departure, the day to convince people this is a good way to travel. Octavia looks pale, apparently she needs convincing, but at least she steps on with the group. Only Lincoln thinks walking at the edge of the river with a rope is a safer place for him. Ah well, I'm convinced he will change his mind as well.

We make our way up the river, this should go a lot easier back towards our Ark when we are on our way back. But for now with us paddling and Lincoln pulling us as well, we make our way up the river. These paddles are a great idea of me, would be hard doing it by hand!

There used to be some kind of big bridge over the river, but that one didn't survive. It takes some time to maneuver through it, but we got past it easily enough. It's mostly marshy land around the river and not much worth the time of exploring so we continue for now. We pass some kind of buildings with paths between them and pools of water with mist above it. It seems a little bit warmer there, so we think that's not a good place to be. Warmth mostly spells out dirty areas Tesla says.

It's nearing dark time and further along the water we find a separated island of some sort. The island and neighboring land holds some kind of thick rotten poles standing straight up from the ground. But it seems safe enough on the island and we make camp, setup watch and fall asleep after the hard work of paddling.

In the middle of the night A female voice in the distance can be heard 'hello, hello, hello!'..

7 - Two Wheeled Metal Thing - ..and it might help us move..

I wake up from a voice in the distance, it's Rianna shouting at someone or something. I'm sure of it! I does not sound like panic, as if she is calling to someone. Octavia is already waking up the rest and we start making our way towards the sound, Octavia tells us Tesla is gone as well. As I see Rianna's new axe still by her sleeping spot I quickly grab it, she might need it. Wow, that thing is heavy! I wonder if I can make it sturdier or add something smart, like weights, to make it swing better.

Apparently they waded across shallow water towards another island and are pulled into some kind of fight with a weird green person and a tree. Things blurred at that time and I cannot remember too much about it, I'm not good in a fight, but I remember we freed Rianna from being eaten by a tree and they told me I actually used her axe to help as well. Also my mouth was dry after the fight so I guess I used my acid glands against someone. And apparently there were two more people here and I noticed Lincoln mumbling something about them tasting like wood. Disgusting!

It took me a while to clear up my mind and I guess I was on autopilot for a bit. I was beside the tree, it was chopped up badly and I Was sitting between a bunch of bones, holding some kind of club and some bullets. IF the club was a weapon it sure was a weird one. Made of metal, long thin flexible shaft and attached to it is a flattened metal stone. This head dimpled as of to interact with something small. I guess the flexibility of the shaft would give the attack an extra swing of strength when hitting something. Though I'm not sure how often it could be used to hit something heavy before it breaks, like a person.

Back to the boat!
We make our way back and continue the night again, a little shaken and little worse for wear. But nothing more happens through the night and we break up camp to continue north again. Why are there twigs in Lincoln's beard and is it more green and alive?

Apparently we are in an area which Tesla already saw from the spire of the building with the person on the cross. Well, this suddenly got mighty interesting! It had mostly boring things, rusted metal fences, chains attached to other metal contraptions, ladders and tubes. Tubes too small and short to be of any use in water systems. But what we found as well was something neat indeed! Two wheels, expertly attached to a metal frame, a chain connecting a middle gear to one of the wheels. This thing was made to move faster than a walk! It would surely make a damn racket, all that metal rolling and it would need something to sit on, but that was fixable indeed!

The rest of the group wasn't that much interested, but the time it took Tesla to complete her search gave me time to have a good look. Though surely not long enough! Back to the boat and back to traveling the river upstream.

Rats
A huge building was near the water's edge as we made our way over the water. Ten stories, but open on all sides, you can see the stairs and the support pillars. Why leave a building open to the wind and weather like this? Who are we to ask anyway? We can't even build a thing like that anymore. I stayed back, the chance of anything interesting in an empty building were small so the others could have a look instead of me.

But before we could get close enough to actually investigate something triggered and all the floors came crashing down in a roar of sound and dust. Squealing and squeaking sounds came from what was left and ugyl big rat like things emerged from the collapsed remains..

8 - More wheeled vehicles - ..let's take some wheels..

Time to leave! After the collapse of the building and the presence of the big rat like creatures the rest of the group came back to our raft quickly. Not a good place to spend the night I guess. We made our camp a little further along the bank, no roof over our heads, but no rats either. So I guess that's a win!

Wheels
Next day was a lot more fun! Tesla went out exploring again and said she found something interesting. And interesting it was indeed! Big wheeled vehicles were rusting in some kind of central place. Some kind of signs were pointing different ways, with weird names like Brookland, Takoma and Chevy Chase. These big metal thing were filled with rows of seats. Would these vehicles bring groups of people to other places? What would be the use of that anyway?

Many thoughts, but I fear we had no time for the most interesting ones, could I get these things running again? I had some time while Tesla was still looking around the area. So I investigated the technical parts of the things, got some really interesting small parts to use later! And yes, two wheels! I'm not sure if I am allowed to take them back home, but I sure am going to try. The others, I think Tesla also found a big container of some kind. They told me it held booze inside, I quickly stopped them from tasking and corrected them it was some kind of fueling liquid. Probably for these vehicles, and maybe for my pet project back home as well!

Too bad! We have to continue further. I morosely look towards the technical marvels as we make our way back to our raft.

Sick
I don't remember too much about the next part of our journey. The Rot was thick in this part of the world and it made me badly ill. I remember something about another person being on the raft, a woman of some kind. Her not making any sense and eating and drinking our reserves. I'm not sure I understand or currently am able to understand the full picture. Luckily we are getting close to the Pure Plant and maybe we can either get rid of her or restock our reserves. Wait what? What is another woman even doing here! Is she someone we know from our Ark, or is there really more in this world?

I know we made camp before we crossed the water and I remember Rianna taking care of the woman. She does look better now and I know she's not a figment of my imagination as I feel a little better as well. Does Rianna think she can be an asset of some kind?

Back at the Pure Plant
Apparently we met people from the Pure Plant as well last night, I do not fully understand what was said, but maybe something happened there since we were gone?

We took our raft to the island and attached it to the wooden structure that was halfway into the water and at the edge of the island. Looked like a good place to put a raft, I guess we should build something like this at home as well.

As Rianna was still healing from the fight and I was still sick we would stay behind. Lincoln decided to stay with us as well. The rest left to speak to the Lutrell and his people.

When they got back they told us about the things that happened here. They were attacked and even thought it was us? Apparently these new people have some kind of vehicle as well, beat up our possible friends and took of southwest with captured people. More people in the world? This surely is breaking our view of the world!

And worst of all, all these people here did was some rites and a sacrifice of some kind? They didn't even sound like they wanted to do something to get their people back?

9 - Bringing water home - We need a proper place for our raft

Well I guess we didn't really think of bringing the proper trade items. So I spent my day still feeling crap and jury-rigging weapons. It's always fun to build things, but these were simple things, not really worthy of the materials that went into them. I made sure to explain the situation, these things looked worthy of a fight, but most would fall apart again after a good fight or two. But apparently it made the locals feel better and that they would stand a better chance next time.

In exchange for these weapons and our promise to help them find back their friends we got six barrels. Four of them filled with good clean water and two I could use to improve our raft. I would use the two empty ones as flotation devices below the filled one, yes, that would keep our raft on top of the water instead of under it.

I took my time to study the construction our raft was attached to as well. We needed something like this at home as well. A sturdy place to put our boat, attach it to something and to be able to easily bring our stuff onto land. Maybe this thing should have a name of some kind as well, I would have to think on that.

Home
It is good to go home again, a safe place to tinker and build. We need a wooden landing place, a waterlanding? A river stop? Hmm. Ah well, we would need one. I would teach what I learned to others so when we leave home again they can finish building it. Hopefully when we get back again we have a good place for our raft.

Also knowing that there actually are other people out there they should finish upgrading our defenses. They completed the croplands, which is a good thing, but what if those others find our home and come upon us unprepared. Specially if we go out there and piss of those people in trying to retrieve the people from the Pure Plant as we promised.

I have a feeling life isn't going to get any easier the coming years.

10 - A Big Tower - ..and more people..

We left our home behind again. Another attempt to find things in the world that could help us survive. Though things we needed to survive were not only out there, but we needed things here as well. If there are more people out there we would need to make sure our people are defended as well. Our defenses needed to be finished, and I wouldn't be able to help when we were out there. And we still needed a better place to put our raft, we leave people behind which I have taught new things, but that place was not of as much importance as other things. Though I am not really convinced yet a museum would help us, where did that idea come from anyway?

Well on the bright side, we would be going out to investigate the people that were riding around in some kind of vehicle. One of those big things we saw on our last trip perhaps? With the knowledge about that It would be able to realise my dream! I had the two big wheels, those might help to get it moving. The fuel would help as well if I learned how to make it run. My hands itched to work on my vehicle, maybe with those wheels I could get it closer to our home and I would be able to work on it more safely. But today we had to leave first and help with the promise we made to the people from the Pure Plant.

On our way

This time our crew was a little bigger, Lincoln brought more of his people. Luckily some of them stayed on land to pull the raft, otherwise I'm not sure it would stay afloat with that many on it. We made our way to the island in the river we slept on earlier. It was not deep there and we could safely cross the river there. According to Tesla we would evade the place with the small buildings which didn't look quite right, the Rot would probably be worse there.

Though the route we took through bare country with burned down buildings wasn't much better. I made sure to wear my rot protection suit and was glad I did. I would have to make more for the others as well when we have time. This place was bad due to the Rot and we decided to make our way through as fast as possible without too much looking around.

After a long walk we came across a large area of dead trees, but those trees were enveloped by some kind of plant with colorful flowers. In a dreary landscape of broken down buildings and dead trees this was remarkable indeed. How can something so colorful and beautiful live in a world like this? Not something to be afraid of but it felt totally wrong! The wrongness didn't stop Finn from taking a closer look. But the moment he came close a puff of something dusty spread over him and he almost instantly dropped to the ground and did not move and he was grabbed by the plant with some kind of needled vine. It took all our combined effort to hack him loose from the plant and drag him to safety. We really didn't need to know this world was even worse than we already thought it was.

We made our way around the forest and past it by from the north, safely away from those plants.

A Tower
As we left the trees behind we made our way southeast and found twin tracks of some kind. Tracks of something big, something rolled by here. It must be the vehicle from those people!

After following the tracks for a while we saw something in the distance. A big tower of some kind. Was this the place we were going to? More buildings started to appear again and they were in a better state than what we've seen on this side of the river. It helped for cover and we moved safely towards the tower.

That thing is amazing! A huge tower with defenses around it. Tesla and Ava moved forwards to gather intelligence and quickly came back. They had multiple people walking on the gate and a big lamp used to shine from the gate to make sure no one walked up unnoticed. We can learn from this for our own home. But it would make things difficult getting inside and recover the people from the Pure Plant.

11 - It Moves - ..they've got one running..

Lincoln has a plan it seems, multiple it seems. Though none appear to involve walking up to the tower and talking to them. Teaches me not to involve myself with any of that planning stuff. I'll just help with setting up our camp up in one of the buildings near to the tower. Pretty smart to keep our camp in a room on the inside of the tower and with the open side away from where the tower people can see us. We might actually be able to make a fire without being seen.

From up here we can look inside their camp and see movement of people. Both women and men and smaller ones as well, playing it seems? They have children over there, that's the second group of people that have children. We don't have those, what's the difference? Though that might be the technical side of this world I do not understand. They seem to be constantly catching some kind of fluid from a pipe and bringing it inside. Is that water? Can't they make a better system to let the water flow directly inside? Though are we anyone to question this? We did a bad thing with out water own water supply, it got all green and we have no idea how to fix it, I have no idea.. At all! I have no idea how that works!

Ava, Lincoln and their little club decide to go out hunting to get us provisioning and the rest of us will watch the tower if someone comes out, hopefully one of those moving vehicles will appear as well!

They have a moving vehicle?
It took a while, but suddenly a loud throaty uneven rumbling noise came from the gates of the compound, a huge dark puff of smoke appeared at one and and the uneven sound changed into a more steady rumble and the smoke changed to a more gentle grey steady cloud rising above. A sudden clunk can be heard and a roaring sound comes from the thing behind the gate. It starts to move! Is this it? It moves a few meters and makes an opening in the gate, wow the thing actually is the gate? It stops and three people come through and then it rumbles anew and it moves back. Well, that's a bit disappointing.. This thing is just part of the gate, pretty awesome, but not really something that moves around the world. There must be more!

Tesla and Finn decide to follow the three people as they walk around and head to the north. That would leave is back to waiting. Boring! We've quickly checked this building and it seemed empty, but going back to take a better look was more interesting than waiting! And the other buildings needed checking as well, right?

Nothing! Nothing at all, these buildings have been cleaned out. That probably means that these people have been here for a while. After our fights and having a look at my rot suit I've been thinking about creating some sturdier clothing, ones that can actually protect someone from harm. Maybe some different kinds of materials inside the normal clothing, metal perhaps? But these buildings weren't going to help with that.

They actually have a moving vehicle!
Another rumbling sound came from the south. Distant still but a lot like the sound I heard from the gate. I made my way back to a window looking out towards the tower just before one of those big vehicles came rolling into view. It was a true amazing sight! I want one of those! I want to build, nah, take one of those apart! So much to learn, I could use that to make my dream build!

When the thing got near the gate they signaled the people on the walls and the gate opened again. It got wider than last time and the vehicle entered inside and moved towards one of the buildings inside the compound. It actually moved inside one of those buildings, going downwards! What kind of place was this! I want inside!

Not long after that two of the group of three that left earlier got back with what looked liked someone or something inside a bag on her shoulder. The gate opened again and the bag was unceremoniously dropped on the ground inside the walls. Hopefully that wasn't Tesla or Finn, though it looked to be to small to be one of them.

I was already back to tinkering when Rianna came by to tell us Tesla and Finn had captured someone. I didn't even notice Rianna left actually, oh and Lincoln and his crew were back as well. Should I try to be a little bit more attentive in dangerous areas like this perhaps?

To the Tower
They captured a woman called Carla, she had a double barreled rifle which was now hanging over Finn's shoulder. Interesting! Would Finn allow me to have a look? I would have to ask him that later. They also told us that apparently the women were in charge here and that men were only important to do work. Why would they be lesser than others? There were about 150 of them, they had mutations as did we and they had someone in charge called The Chairman. Something to do with a chair I guess, did they have an Elder as well? This person was able to make children somehow? Rianna was able to explain most of that, but it got a bit confusing and I had to hear it a few times more.

And what was the conclusion of all that? Thie Carla woman was going to introduce us to the people inside the compound and we would talk to them. Well that sounds like a plan no-one thought about..

12 - This bastard has some fancy stuff - ..and I can't touch it!

The rest came back and brought this Carla woman to us, but that was not all. For some reason Jo-Ann was there as well and why did that bring a smile to my face? What is she doing all the way out here?

Apparently things were mixed up at home and Harper was trying to step into the void. Was that a bad thing? Maybe for Lincoln and Elona, but also for me? A short time ago I don't think this would mean anything for me, but I have been a little bit more in the presence of Lincoln lately. Not things I normally think about, should I start now?

If Lincoln and his fellows needed to be heading home, I guess we would be going back as well. But not at this moment, it was nearing dark and the world was dangerous enough in the light. Maybe we needed more light in the dark, the tower had some kind of light at their gates, could we learn from that? Can we make it moveable? Did those moving vehicles have lights? We only saw them during the day. Well, apparently we would be spending the night in the tower as guests. Would I get a chance to have a good look at those vehicles or other stuff? Let's find out!

Inside the Tower
Carla led us towards the gate, raising a hand in greeting. Would these people have allowed us to enter if we just knocked on the gate when we got here? The gate rumbled into activity again and another big plume of dark smoke rose from the backend. I really needed to have a look, but apparently I was to follow first as Rianna almost dragged me forward. We would have to undergo some kind of cleaning first before we were allowed anything else.

They didn't use water to clean us, but used brushes to clean the rot from our bodies. At our Ark we clean ourselves in our water supply, would that be a reason why our supply was getting worse? Guess we can learn from others, maybe we could have learned earlier if we were allowed to go outside the Ark before our Elder started to degrade together with our whole Ark?

After cleaning they gave us food, someone was mentioning something about the food not being right in some way, but I wasn't really listening, I was hungry. And hey, free food! They told us we could walk around while waiting to see this Chairman fellow. Though we could not go up to the penthouse or down into the basement. What's a penthouse anyway? Something up top apparently, and I was more interested in the basement and other things anyway.

But first, let's have a look at that gate! Free to walk around? Sure, but I can't touch it, or open it, or look at the real interesting stuff! I need to learn things, that means looking up close and feeling around, maybe move some parts around a little! I cannot learn anything like this. Bah! I had a look at the basement entries, they are guarded unfortunately. They had light inside the walls behind transparent material of some kind. Interesting! But the eyes of the guards watching me gave me the idea that they were probably not going to allow me to open those anyway. This is getting boring fast!

I made my way inside the tower a bit and found some kind of contraption. A wooden cage attached to ropes leading up into a tall open shaft. Was this some way up into the tower? But before I could investigate I suddenly heard screaming as a door opened and a man with only underpants came running outside. It was this man that was screaming and he made his way towards the gate. The gate was not opening and he slammed against it hard as he tried to climb upwards. Shouts came from on top of the gate as warnings were given for him to stop. He did not stop and was apparently driven to get away. But before he could get far enough he was shot down from above and he dropped down, dead on the ground. I looked around, maybe this gave me chance to stroll into the basement innocently, but the guards were not impressed by the situation and kept their place. Was this a normal thing around here? This didn't feel right, even with the words from Carla earlier about males being less than females.

The Chairman
I quickly forgot about the previous situation as Carla gathered us to take us to the Chairman. I didn't really care about the chairman, but we were going to be taken upwards in that cage like thing. It didn't feel like a real cage as the sides were open, so that was ok and Carla went up with us as well. As we stepped into it she shouted up for the thing to go up. Slowly but surely the thing started to rise. It was smaller than the shaft up by quite a lot, so there was room around it. I made it wobble a bit by moving back and forth, but quickly stopped and shrugged as I got a few crossed eyed looks.

It took a while, but we got to the top and left the cage into a hallway leading towards a door. Carla knocked on the door and made our presence known. Inside was a huge room and the walls were decorated with all kinds of different things. It also had these flickering lights I noticed earlier. There was a big desk and chair with someone behind it. A pale man dressed in a black cloak and a woman standing behind him with a three barreled shotgun. I was probably not going to be allowed to check that out as well. Well, I guess the Chairman being a man didn't make all males bad, right?

I made my way towards the wall as the others were going to have a chat with the chairman. And again I was not allowed to touch anything, but I guess looking was a good start as well. There were weapons and other interesting mechanical stuff. Two tubes attached to each other with glass at the ends. I couldn't look properly through it being attached to the wall and too little light, but it was somehow deforming what came through it. Let me touch it! And all the other stuff please!

I didn't get much from the conversation with the Chairman, but afterwards I heard he was kind of full of himself. Only wanting to get more power and trying to find out where our Ark was and how many people we have. Guess that conversation didn't really go anywhere, but at least we were allowed to stay in the tower and sleep the night.

After setting up our camp and apparently deciding that we needed to leave the next day someone new showed her face. A woman named Krin showed up and told us she wasn't really happy with the Chairman. Guess not only the men were unhappy here. What would this lead to?

13 - This thing is better than I hoped for - ..and it has a gun

They told me the Chairman was full of himself, wanted control of everything and something about creating children with our females as well. The power thing was bad I guess, but there would always be people wanting power. The children part was interesting, would that be possible somehow? Or would that mean we were stuck with him?

Lost in thought, my brain partly on tweaking the things in my hands and partly on unfamiliar ground of our people and the future. I didn't really notice the rest making plans what to do next. Something about trying to cause a riot, could that work in a night? Killing the Chairman, that might work in a night, but what would happen after?

Tesla, Finn and Ava went to try and have a look in the basement. I wanted to see what was there! But I would probably not be the best in being quiet enough to go unnoticed. Though I wonder what happened when we heard a gunshot and they came back. Apparently they used Flux to trick the guard downstairs and letting it think it was just a dog running around free when the others took a good look around. Nice one!

The basement held a big wooden wheel with beat down men pushing it it around. Apparently that's where the power came from to show turn on the lights. Interesting! Though using people for power should not be a preferred method. Zone Ghouls perhaps, but not people! The same room held the cages of the prisoners and the workers. It also had two more doors, but they weren't able to check those as a second guard was in the room as well.

Time for action
Time to split up and time for action! I'm not totally sure about the details of the plan and I didn't like Rianna going up while I went down. Were they going to talk again or something bolder? More important, was I going to see the vehicle now? I guess I'm a bit excited!

There was some sneaking and a struggle with two guards, but we made our way down into the basement. Most men were in panic after we entered and it turned dark quickly. A quick command from Tesla made some of them start pushing the wheel again. The light in the room returned, though not as strong as before.

After spitting some acid on the locks of the cages, the others freed the men. We were told the missing Pure Ones were behind door number one, though if that was the place they died I wasn't planning on going there. Octavia made her way to that door, she is a lot better with hurt and dead people than I am. I quickly made my way to the second door, that's where the interesting stuff should be!

I entered the room that connected to the ramp leading outside. This room was incredible. It held not one, but two of those vehicles! One was plated with steel on the outside, small windows and some kind of big gun on the back. And more equipment was stored in this place as well. This was a playground for my kind!

14 - Its Mine - ..and having to leave it behind..

This place, it's filled with so much goodness! I want to touch it all, play around with it all, take it with me! Would I stay behind if these people treated men a little bit better? Would I become worthwhile enough to them if I could show my skills? No even if I convinced this Chairman I would not be in the correct place. My people need me, Sabine needs me, Rianna needs. Although that might be the other way around.. And then there is Jo-Ann, is there a need of some sort?

I need to focus, at least that's what the others tell me. We need the vehicle to move to be able to leave. Could I make it work? I quickly grab some random things from the shelves and put them in my pockets. I ask Tesla to load things aboard. Tesla nods in agreement as I make my way towards it. Apparently she trusts me to get it working? I cannot disappoint her, it gives me a glowing feeling inside, a warm buzz of some kind. That's it! I will call this thing a buz from now on, maybe bus?

I am thwarted at first to get inside of the bus. It has an obvious door, but no obvious way to open it. As I look inside I can see some kind of mechanism attached to the door. That will obviously open it, but there should be a way to open it from the outside as well, right? Ah well, no time to waste on that now. We climb inside through a window and quickly move the mechanisme to open the door. Awesome! Next up, let's get this beast moving!

I'm not so sure how this works, but I start to look around at what might be needed and use what I learned about my own dream vehicle at home. Which was surely not a bus, though the armor plating on this one made it look like the one I have at home. I've been playing and theorizing about making that one move for quite a while now. I suddenly notice I still have one of the devices I grabbed from the shelves earlier still in my hand. It's some kind of big spanner with a movable head. I notice a small hole beside the steering wheel and it seems to be able to rotate, but it looks a lot like the lock I found a way back. But I had no tool to put inside to make it work. Guess this is the time to brute force it a little bit, I should be able to set my new spanner around the mechanism instead and then twist and turn it into the correct position. The engine suddenly roars into life and I squeal a bit with enthusiasm. I made it work!

Next challenge! It rumbles, but it also needs to actually move. Those pedals under the wheel should do something and that big poke beside the chair. The poke obviously moves a lot easier with the left pedal in the downwards position. The middle pedal doesn't seem to do anything and the right just makes it roar and shows a dial going into red. It takes a while and with a little help and the poke in some kind of state we make the thing move forwards as I push the right pedal downwards. Making sure the dial stays out of the red I make the bus start moving towards the gate. It moves! It's mine!

Home, here we come!
We move, but the gate is still closed! I'm sure I do not remember all things correctly, it was a buzz of confusion. I know there were flames involved coming from our bus. I know I jumped out of the bus to redo the trick of starting the gate-bus the same way I learned earlier. I know Octavia and Rianna took over the driving for a bit. I know Lincoln helped me with the other bus and I helped him get back into the bus when the gate was open. But in what order and how that actually went I do not know anymore. But we were out of the camp and on the way home.

I had no idea where home actually was, so I trusted the others and made sure the bus kept moving in the correct direction. There was a big discussion on what route we should follow, back to the boat or first to the Pure Plant. Apparently we saved people from there as well, I didn't even notice that! I wanted to go to the Pure Plant, but I guess not for the same reasons as some of the others. I don't really care too much about the Pure Ones, but that was the only logical route to bring back my bus to our home.

Guess I got out voted and we didn't go to the Pure Plant. They could have sent me anywhere, I wouldn't have known till we got there. But the river was a good clue where we were I guess. We made our way towards the water and quickly learned my boat was gone! Did we leave it in the water? Surely not! Whatever it was, it made the discussion of the way back flame up again.

Luckily Lincoln wasn't going to give up that easily, he took it upon himself to wade downriver. And he actually found the boat! It was stuck in the water, but in good health!

Was I going to have to leave my bus behind? What if it was found by others again?

15 - I had to leave the bus - though I have some other things to play with..

Driving back was fun! I think these things should be able to go faster, but I'm not sure they were in an optimal state or maybe the path we were following could hold better. We saw more solid paths earlier, maybe those were made for these kind of ways of traveling? These paths just make our bus get stuck now and then in the water. That needs a fix for sure!

As we drove back I asked Octavia what she thought about this Harper business. I know we were spending a lot of time with Lincoln and I guess I liked the man, but was he better than Harper. Or was Harper worse than Lincoln or Elona perhaps? Should I chose sides? They all made use of my skills and I had a pretty good life supplying them all I guess. Obviously Octavia was convinced Lincoln was better. Maybe I should talk to someone else about this. I guess I can speak about almost anything to Rianna, but talking about things like that is difficult! It makes my brain hurt, I need a diversion!

Diversion time!
Things suddenly got interesting when we arrived in a place that was spotted by Tesla earlier. She told us some kind of long rails were across the water from our Ark. What these rails were for was a good question indeed. When Tesla took her time to scout around for dangers and to speak to our friends still on the boat, I took some time to have a closer look at the rails and the big wagons around the rails. The rails were metal of some kind and super straight. Wow! That is some impressive metal working. We surely cannot do that anymore. And some of those wagons were standing on the rails with the wheels. They fit perfectly inside the rails and would make those wagons drive a lot more steadily than our bus on those paths we traversed. I found one that looked a lot like it was the wagon to push or pull the others, it had some sort of engine inside, but I would need a lot more time to investigate this before I would understand how it works.

Tesla and the others told us the bus was not going to be able to traverse the river so we would have to leave it behind soon. But we would have to go a little further still before we found the easiest part to cross. I would have to leave it behind soon! I was surely coming back as well!

A little further we found weird big towers of metal, a weird humming sound was in the air. Did these towers make this sound, why would they do this? Another thing to investigate, the world was getting better every day! We should have left The Ark far sooner!

Home again!
With a sad thought I said goodbye for now to the bus and we made our way across the water. A short hike further we came back to our Ark. It had changed. They finished the defenses and the watch tower. Good on them! If Harper and his people were involved in this, it wasn't all bad right?

We were welcomed back, but not all things were fine. Our Elder was nearing his end, he was in a bad shape. Can we do this without him?

I was not able to think straight and needed a good diversion. Luckily we brough back all those goodies from the tower and I set my mind on those things instead of other things.

16 - Repair on my dream has begun - and they take me away again

I leave the Ark behind through the new gate, dragging my new tires, something Sabine left me to repair, engine parts I scooped from the tower and more importantly my new wrench. Hopefully with al this I can make a good start on my dream. I love my new bus, though I do not love it being across the river. But if I can get my dream up and running it will be even better! Knowing new threats are in this world the better we are protected the better. And this wheeled armored vehicle needs a lot of work, but it will be beautiful!

It would also give me a good spot to put my stuff instead of in the Ark, I just know Steward keeps taking things from my space if he sees the chance. Though being connected to Lincoln and being on the same level in the Ark seems to have positive effects on his actions. I've been away a lot lately, but when I get back I am only missing small unimportant things.

Deep in thought and making some serious headway I hear a familiar voice calling out for me. Though I wonder how many times she called for me before I heard her. Rianna is standing next to me and gives me a friendly push to get my proper attention. It's time to leave again. No more working on my dream, though we were going to retrieve the bus and try to get it back to our Ark by way of the Pure Plant.

We make our way back to the Ark, grab food and drink for traveling and leave the stuff Sabine obviously wanted me to repair behind in my job done area. Almost forgot! I quickly grab the canister of fuel for the bus we found earlier in the north.

Back to the bus
It's still there! We made our way across the river with our raft and find the bus just where we left it. We take some time to lift the raft upon the bus and make sure it stays there with use of Rianna's rope. They were planning to leave the raft behind as if it has not proven it's worth already! Now that I think of it, maybe we should have taken some extra people with us to just take it back across the river and back to the Ark. Silly!

I lovingly speak to the bus as I enter it and make ready to depart and drive north. It takes me and my wrench a bit of jiggling but I get it to start up pretty easily. It will probably need proper taking care of to make sure it keeps on working.

The drive north is mostly uneventful as in parts the ground gets a lot better, more old roads, less dirt, and we try not to make stops to find out what can be found in the places we see. At least the word road is what Octavia gives it, guess she read that somewhere. A big building we see in the distance seems to be in good shape and a big solid gleaming pillar looks interesting as well. But the night we spent at the entrance of a big empty building, parked under an overhang of sorts was a lot worse. Large sucking wormlike creatures attacked us in the night, resistant to physical attacks, luckily good fighting skills, Rianna's fire and my acid make short work of it and we can continue our journey.

Back at the Pure plant

We knew we weren't going to be able to just drive the bus into the area of the Pure plant. Both it being on an island and it would probably scare them silly if a bus arrived on their doorsteps again without a warning. We decided to split up the group. Rianna, Finn, Flux and me would be taking the bus the long way around the island towards the south of the Pure plant. That way we would not have to leave our bus on this side and it would be less traveling when we were done here again. The rest would go straight to the island with the pure ones we rescued and without the scare of the bus.

17 - I feel different - should others feel different too?

I feel different, I feel more. I've been searching my mind for it when we drove towards and round the island of the Pure Plant. I think it happened during the attack of those wormlike creatures. I think I triggered something extra inside me while extensively using my acid glands. Something popped inside of me and I've been feeling connected. It's hard to explain to myself, can I explain it to someone else. Do I even want to? It makes me want to use whatever it is, makes me want to affect others. A little bit like sending out feelers into the world and touching other people's mind in a way. It makes me a little bit angry as well, does this change me, does it change other things?

I'm sure I've been sending out some grumpy looks to the others during our trip. Sending out my mind to others seems to connect me to them, but I do not want this to affect my own people. Right?

I was thinking of staying behind with the bus while the others went to the Pure Plant, but going with them does give me an opportunity I guess. And I'm not quite sure the group has the ability to learn the technical part of the water purifications. So I guess I am going to the Pure Plant with Rianna and Finn.

The others already spoke to Lutrell and he seems more open and friendly. Willing to teach us to the purification process and even give us the white powder for it as well. A few not so friendly words from me to him during the explanation and our request for food and drink and I think I'm touching his mind a bit. Does it make me different that I need to spite people to trigger this new thing. Does it actually need negativity? It does help me to express things and it secretly feels good as well. Maybe I've been a little bit too much inside of myself and there could be benefits in change, right?

Time to go home
I'm not really sure how we drove, but we made it back. My thoughts have been a bit of a shambles and I've been trying to send out feelers to the group now and then, but without having anyone to try this on I've been holding myself back. Anyone at home I would be willing to test this on? Should I listen to the others and is Harper really a bad man and would that mean I could practice on him or one of his crew?

But.. We've learned how to save our Ark! And we brought back our bus! I think it's time to take it apart, time to find out how things work and learn how to use that on my dream!

18 - The Cleansing - No scrubbing for me!

So much to understand! I'm taking this bus apart. Well, not literally, right? I need to find out how this engine works, how it burns the fuel and how that translates to the rotation of the wheels. So many moving parts!

Maybe I actually need to take it apart, could I use the roof of the bus as a roof for our water supply? That's an interesting thought. But first back to the moving parts under the hood. Lot's of piping and wires and boxes and belts. I don't think I have removed anything important yet, a few more loosening of bolts might change that though.

'Bolt'. Someone is calling me. 'Bolt!', I remove myself from the engine part and take a look. It's Finn! Being disturbed is never fun, but a little less bad if it's a friend. Is he a friend? Am I making differences between more people these days? 'Hey Finn'

Well that was a weird conversation, apparently Finn wants to have a backend gun of the bus moved to the watchtower. Not really a bad idea if you ask me and if I am taking the roof of anyway. Though not really on the top of the list I need to do. I think I told him he could ask others to take care of it, but if I let others do it they might break the roof.

I'm not sure when Finn left and I was in the middle of deciding on what to do first when Rianna walked up to the bus calling my name. I bumped my head against the hood. I really hate being being disturbed and I might act out one of these days. But surely not against Rianna, never against Rianna!

Water fixing time
They need me to fix the water supply. I've had some ideas about it surely, but I would have to investigate the area below the basin. But more importantly I need to make sure Steward doesn't touch my bus. I'm not leaving it without someone watching it! Rianna can take care of that right? Sure she can! Thanks Rianna!

Time to visit the floor below the basin of our Ark. Harper's area, and they say the ones below are his as well, does that make sense? It seems there are more people in his crew and he has put his sign on the neutral floors. I'm not sure what to think about that. I'm everyone's friend right? I greet the sentry at the stairs and walk on past him. See? No problem, still friends. Though I hear the others having a little more difficulty entering this floor. No worries, they can take care of themselves.

As I thought! We can make use of the piping below the water, I just need some extra pipes and other stuff and I can make the water go outside through one of the portholes. Easy! Except for one thing, this is not a one man job. I need help with this and I know just the guy. I've been hanging a bit with Max after I taught him about the docks we found at the Pure plant. Maybe we could both work on the bus as well. Am I making more friends? This is getting weird.

Yay! I close the valve we added to the piping when the water is mostly out. Next step adding that weird white powder and then a lot of scrubbing work to do still. I sure ain't going to do that though, I have important work on the bus to do! That roof needs to come of and I need to finish my work on the engine.

Maybe I need to somehow make it easier to remember how all the parts are connected. Do I need to learn to draw and maybe even write? That keeps on popping up as being a nice skill to have. Should I ask Octavia about that? Though she is a bit busy with taking care of the Elder, that's important too right?

19 - It Moves - though it likes going left more than right

So much to do! I'm going to do it all! Well.. Most I guess. The list is a bit long and seems to be growing daily. A bus to take care of, a roof to fix over the water basin, a filtering system to make sure the green doesn't return to the water, a cannon to move onto the watchtower, I need to make sure Sabine can run around without broken equipment again. And most importantly I have a dream to fulfill.

And what does that idiot Steward think he can do? Him coming by and wanting to remove the cannon from my bus. I think he could setup the cannon up on the watchtower, easy enough job I guess. But he has a single task brain and would focus on the cannon and destroy the roof while doing it. I sent him away obviously. Maybe I'll send him a message when I've removed the roof.

I don't think I can do the roof job alone. I'll ask Max to help, he was a great asset yesterday on the pipe job.

Across the water again
We've been doing good work on a lot of different things, maybe I shouldn't try to do too much at the same time. Glad Max is here to help! Though she's even worse than I am in being distracted and she seems to want to attach stuff to almost everything! Just to make things look better. Ah well, guess we are having fun next to being useful to the Ark.

A few days without any disruptions is a blast! Too bad it has to end. Two people have been sighted across the river. One known to us. Apparently Carla has decided to follow the tracks our bus made. It was inevitable they would follow I guess, maybe we should have removed the tracks? Smart idea for next time, little bit late now.

Apparently Harper didn't know what to do so Rianna, Tesla decided that we needed to move and investigate. We told Harper to try and catch the attention from this side of the river and we would make our way across a little to the east to try and catch them. Rianna, Tesla, Octavia, Finn and me carried the raft and made our way across.

As always these times of action get me confused and they turn vague afterwards. I know there was shooting and Rianna being hurt by a surprise attack. But we got back to the Ark safely with a captured woman, unfortunately that woman not being Carla. She got away from Rianna and Tesla apparently. This other woman being a distraction, guess that's how they take care of friends over there. Next step was going to get information from her, but I wasn't going to be helpful there, so I made my way back to work.

Even more work
Things got serious pretty fast after the encounter with the woman from the tower. Even Harper turned into the right kind of serious. The cannon emplacement on the watchtower suddenly got a little higher on the list, the flamethrower needed moving to the front gate and I had to hand out some tips to Tesla and Octavia on how to create some kind of gate instead of the gaping hole in our defensive perimeter.

But we got some serious work done after a few more days. The roof was over the basin, the cannon and the flamethrower were almost done and my dream actually made it's first move. I got it inside the gates before things started rattling and the thing stopped purring. It moved!

And then something bad happened.

20 - People from the Tower are here - so much destruction

The Elder is no more! An inevitable fact I guess. Does that mean I am fine with it? Ready for it? I need to think about this for a bit, wrap my head around it. He was different than us, for many years he seemed immortal and all knowing. More than us in many ways. But apparently he was the same as well. Death was not different for him, just history. He was here before us and lead us. Almost lead us into doom. His downward path actually freed us. We have become more than a group grasping for survival. We have been growing beyond what he envisioned. I guess that does mean I am relatively fine with it and made ready as well. Our recent adventures made me ready, though that will not be the same for everyone. They will have to cope, but that they will have to do by themselves. Our leaders will lead and I still have many things to do.

I've been stripping the bus for parts that are not required for it to drive. Mostly. I think I know where all parts go and how I can use them for my dream. I am not totally convinced if I continue stripping it I will be able to make it work again. I need help, not technically, but as an extra memory. Max can help, but I need to start noting things down. I can make drawings I guess, but I need more. I need help from Octavia. Yes, I need to ask her to help me to learn to read and write. I've made up my mind, I'm going to ask her and I'm convinced she will help me.

The Ceremony
Rianna thinks I need to be at the burning of the Elders body. I know it's important for people, but I have already dealt with it in my way. A dead body needs to be burned obviously, but that is for health reasons. I don't care for a big ceremony, I don't want to be in a crowd of sad people. But I will be there because Rianna wants me to. We make our way there and Rianna leads me to a spot right next to Jo-Ann. Did she do that on purpose? Jo-Ann greets me with a smile and I return the favor. I guess I like her smile, it's.. comforting?

As I watch Octavia hold an uplifting speech for the Elder I also see Harper standing there, next to Lincoln and Elona. This ceremony might hold an interesting opportunity. I've got this new connection with other people's mind that might prove useful. Can I somehow leave a message inside someone's mind? A trickle of influence perhaps? I'm not quite sure if I can actually influence others? How about I create something inside the Harper's mind that shows something in the fire. A word of influence after death? A small thing to improve collaboration between him and Lincoln.

I make my way nearer to Harper and concentrate and try to find a connection to his mind. I quickly stop myself from showing the concentration on my face, don't want to be caught looking at him when he by accident looks my way. Just a small change in what he sees in the fire, a word, maybe a few more when that happens.

Octavia finishes her speech and holds the torch towards the pyre that holds our Elder. Not a small fire, but a huge fire suddenly erupts around the body. I feel strengthened by this unexpected effect and drive my mental tentacle towards Harpers brain and force him to see the Elder in his prime inside the flames. I make words appear inside his head as if the Elder spoke to him directly. The Elder tells him to work together with Lincoln and treat him as his equal and not to take steps against Lincoln authority. I feel truly empowered, this is far more than I ever expected to happen. I can see by the change on Harper's face that it actually happened and was not a figment of my imagination. I quickly make my way back towards Rianna and Jo-Ann. I have no idea how much impact this will have, but it sure feels great!

Into the fray
It was the next day and we were in the middle of what Octavia called a class, her teaching us to read and write. This is a skill I am going to like for sure and will be extremely useful! Suddenly shouting could be heard. The people from the Tower were coming. Two busses filled with armed people. We had been preparing for this, with limited time, but with healthy fervor. This was it!

No simple fight between two small groups, but this was a lot more. There will be death and chaos and I am not sure how I will even react to something big like this. Fighting is not really my thing, the chances of me actually fighting or cowering in a corner are about the same.

As always after a fight I can only remember a little of what happened, as if something protects me from harm. I know I moved my APC towards the gate, to make sure our temporary gate has a second line of defense. I hid in my APC at first, watching what happened outside. I was afraid, that's for sure. But then the drive of one of the enemy busses decided to use their bus to breach our compound through our badly constructed gate. The bus was in flames before it hit our gate, but that didn't slow it down and it rammed through it far too easily. Somehow that action pushed me into unexpected action and I apparently decided to use my APC to retaliate and slow down their progress.

When I returned to consciousness I saw the damage I had done to the bus, the people I killed. I know probably most of those actually died fighting when others joined in after my crash. But this was the first time my actions were either directly or maybe indirectly involved in killing someone. I was feeling horrible, both physically and mentally. Is there any way we could have prevented this? Could we have resolved this differently? We will probably never know.

Apparently it was clear to Rianna that I was disturbed by the whole situation, she was good with people like that. She also somehow felt she was not the one to help me through this specific situation and led me to Jo-Ann. I cannot exactly remember what we spoke about, it didn't matter, but we felt a need to share. It made me feel better, specially the hug we shared at the end. I was going to make it through the day.

21 - Putting people in cages to fight - I'm not sure this is a good change

I'm feeling better after I spent time with Jo-Ann. Is better enough though? I think I will be spending the coming days on my APC or any other task my head comes up with. I need to focus on real work, time to work on my list again. I've started trying to note the list down, it probably doesn't make sense to Octavia as being actual readable words. I guess it's more drawings than words still. But it's a start, right?

Fights?
I know they were working on some kind of new entertainment. But the need to celebrate our victory over the Tower has taken a turn I did not expect. Some kine of cage fight show thing? People taking on others in a one on one fight. And you can then wager bullets on the outcome. I surely wasn't interested at first. But Rianna was going to fight as well. She challenged Voron and he accepted. I guess this guy earned a beat down after his actions, at least that's what Rianna tells me. I will have a look and make sure Rianna wins. Erh. That is make sure that I see that she wins, not me making sure by actually doing something to intervene, right? Is that something I could.. Would do? Back to work, I will check in tonight at the fight.

More than fights?
I push my way through the people around the cage to make sure I am up front and able to see Rianna fight. I'm here to see, and not do. I notice a fixer standing next to me and pass him two bullets in Rianna's name. I'm actually feeling a little bit excited. Is that my excitement or of the people around me. Are they affecting me, or is this all my own? I don't like being in crowds like this, but this is the second time shortly after each other. Previously the crowd of the burning of the Elder and now this. It makes mee feel the same a bit. I'm affected in a way, I get the feeling, no, the desire to do something.

The fight begins, but I am still partly stuck in the elation of the people around me. I look back at the fighters and notice this Voron has a lot more arms than Rianna has. And he knows how to use them. Is that fair? I heard someone say at the beginning all mutations are allowed, so I guess it is.

The fight doesn't go as easily for Rianna as I thought, those four arms are dangerous. I cannot stop myself and feel myself reaching out to Voron's mind. I trip something inside his brain, I can feel his confusion as at that same time Rianna seems to down Voron. I don't know how she did it, I did not see, I was too much in his mind instead of my own.

This is wrong. I cannot be here! But somehow I find another fixer and put my new two bullets I just earned on the next fight of Garrett versus Tyrell. Garrett will win, I will not influence this match. Bad enough I did it to help Rianna, but no more!

Garrett wins, but the end result is a lot different. He finishes with a weird look in his face while grabbing Tyrell's neck. I just said no more! I cannot enter that mind to stop this! Can I? Should I? Before I make up my mind Garrett snaps Tyrell's neck with a loud snap.

And then things get even weirder. Someone starts a panic. Tesla? People mill around. I make sure I get my bullets from the fight and follow Rianna through the chaos. She says Tesla saw something and we needed to catch Conner?

It was all so confusing! We ended up on the upper floor of The Ark. I cannot remember exactly what happened, but I remember fire and Conner jumping off the side of The Ark. Rianna's fire? I do not know..

22 - They all look the same - and they have a pretty unbelievable story

They can go to the tower without me. I need time to fix my APC and wrap my head around what's happening. I need me time. So sure! Take Max with you! Bring me some awesome technology though. They can do that, right? Maybe not take everything, that's not really fair towards Harper. He's gonna take control there with his people. A third location to grow and trade. Also counting our new friends at the Pure plant.

A new world and some peace and quiet to get some thing done. No more disturbances, right?

Guess what?
Indeed, more disturbances. How could we ever have thought that we were the only survivors in this world?

Suddenly another group of people from who knows where bring a boat to land on our shore. Five people looking exactly the same, not only in appearance, but also in clothing. And they are all called Farzad, with a number behind the name, huh? They looked pretty silly if you ask me, but they surely have an awesome boat! Much better than that silly thing I built to cross the river.

I need to have a closer look, though that's all I got apparently. Four of them joined our people inside the Ark area and left this one guy behind. But he wasn't me close, let alone open the boat up and have a look inside at all the good parts! I will have to leave that for later and I will join the others to find out what these people want.

I walked in late so listened mostly, trying to capture the whole story. Apparently these people were somewhere between two and three years old? I know our youth is a black hole in our memories, but we've livened for a lot longer than that and we were smaller than we were now. We just don't know anymore what happened during us being younger and smaller. But these people people started up fully grown somehow? Fleeing from someone called Xerxes, a droid or something? Not a person, but something made out of mechanical things, small engines and batteries. Batteries apparently being the things we found earlier that were able to make things light up or play sound. Hah! As if something like that can exist!

I would have been excited if it wasn't such a load of crap. And they want our help somehow against others like them and this droid thing? Bah!

23 - A pretty unbelievable story - ..right?

I still think what they are telling us cannot be true! And sure they can build an extra boat as well? That quickly turned into them asking for things we don't have. As if we would have a motor to drive a boat just lying around doing nothing, not being turned into something useful. Hah! That's an insult against us gearheads!

Let's have a look around our Ark to see if anything useful is in there to build a boat? Though the Elder not being around anymore might give me the option to use some of the walls for other purposes. I loved the old guy, but he wouldn't let me change much to the Ark. I actually don't think he would have liked my pipe job below the water supply if we were able to tell him about it.

Timing is everything they say. Harper has left the Ark and this is the first time we ever get to look at his quarters. And sure these people are around and then we find something in his quarters that's going to help. He had been using one of the rescue sloops of the Ark as a roof above his bed or something? Not that I know what a sloop is or that our Ark needed them. Them silly people keep telling us our Ark was a big boat as well? As if this big thing could float, and it's on land for the Elder's sake!

So we have a boat now, it's full of holes and does not have one of those motors they speak about. And what's the worst thing? Now we need to fix it ourselves as well. Useless! Though I'm not sure we would have recognized the thing in Harper's room as being a boat. Not going to tell them that!

Away we go!
I still do not understand the reason why we need to help these people. They understand a boat, sure! Still a bad story if you ask me! Moving machine that looks like a person and orders people around that all look the same? Hah!

But I'm not going to let the others go without me, what if they need my help on something technical? It's like not helping Sabine with her stuff, I had to repair most of her equipment yesterday again. A good one, I have some time left to fix up a rot suit for Rianna. I'll spend some quality time effort on it and make it good.

Leaving was a little less glorious than I hoped for, having no motor for our boat, we had to use a rope attached to theirs to pull us forward in the water. They promised us a real boat when we got at their place though! And what if part of their story is actually true, what will we find? Am I a little excited now? Bah!

We followed the river south, not quite going as fast as they said we could go, but they were blaming that on us needing to be pulled of course. Water travel wasn't really bad, it was steady and we were passing land pretty quickly. We still couldn't swim, though after some quick foolery by Rianna in the water she was convinced she could swim. We didn't see anything living on land, but it sure felt like we saw shadows moving there. We passed a big upright wheel of some kind, there were big cups on the wheel and things moving on it. Tesla used her binoculars to have a look and though they were Zone Ghouls, not going there then. After that we passed an island made of floating boats with people on it. I would have guessed our group wanted to stop there as they always want to stop everywhere when we get outside the Ark. Ah well not this time, we just passed on by.

The big water
After that the river turned wide. Extremely wide! They called it something else, but I forgot the name. And soon after we saw smoke on the horizon. Not just some simple smoke, but a hell of a lot of smoke. And when we got close it appeared that one of their water tower things was up in flames. Guess their story about the towers in the water were not so much crap I guess.

Things suddenly got even worse as the flaming tower got even worse and exploded in a huge ball of flame. Boats started to move from one of the other towers toward it and we were spotted as well.

A small one man boat thingie and a little bit bigger boat with two people on it moved our way pretty quickly. Not that we really had a plan, but this wasn't really how it was meant to go, right?