Octavia's Notebook

Morning Notebook,

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

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

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

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

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

The others spend that day with other things:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That was it for now,

Octavía

My dearest Notebook,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be safe,

Octavía

Dear Notebook,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I hope Ruby is fine... <3

Octavía