Dear diary,

I think I’m better now, mostly. Holding Quiet helped. Not sure if that was something I should have done, given her displayed mental state (read: nothing at all). She hasn’t said a damn thing or even reacted to much of anything since we got here. Plus it got mud all over my face.

I think she’s in shock, maybe. Or is still recovering from previous traumas (ahem). Aren’t we all. Still no idea as to her real name (here’s a bad sign for you: her jacket has a name tag on the back collar that says Meghan, but one of her shoes says Sandra. I’d put money on the shoes, except they have bloodstains. Ooh, thought provoker: Does blood strengthen or weaken her claim to the shoes? Trick question, doesn't matter. Her shoes, her jacket now.) or how old she is (4-10. I am very bad at this. She’s waist high, so probably not 4.).

She eats and drinks, though. People found a stash of fruit and some kind of dried travel rations in one of the side rooms. Makes me wonder where all the people at. Somebody built this place, somebody made and took care of the weapons/armor pile, somebody carved the statues. So where they at? Did they all die? Disappear? Saw an omen in the sky and decided to leave town for a while?

My money’s on the latter. There’s no dust here. This place was inhabited until very recently. Plus, I’m willing to bet whatever dropped us off here made some sort of noise or flashy lights. Or there’s a prophecy of some kind. You don’t usually see shit like this without a handy-dandy go-here-kill-this-recover-that prophecy, with ominous chanting, overhyped mystics and somebody somewhere called The Hero, usually in caps.

I could be wrong, though. Kinda hope I am. Those stories never go how I want them to when somebody else writes them, but now that I'm personally involved, who's to say the universe won't deploy a good bit of irony and let the bad guy win big time. In before super-secret reverse double-bluff and I'm the bad guy who wins.

Nah, too easy. Assume fucked and work from there. Saved my ass before.

Speaking of, now that we’ve moved and settled our butts in, what's our next objective? Those food stores won’t last forever and they look like they’re meant to be eaten on the road. It’s unfortunate that they don’t come with instructions or even a welcome letter, but boo-hoo. We’ll deal.

The speeches from the leader crew, the dozen people I mentioned in the last entry before I had my meltdown, weren’t anything special. They were nice enough that they called for unity, calm, peace, hope, et cetra, but I still can’t help but be suspicious of anyone who grabs a leadership position this quickly. It’s unfair, sure, but call me unfair. If they turn out to be marvelous people and lead us all into a spontaneous golden age then that’s fantastic. But I will never apologize for wanting evidence of a leader’s direction and capability before I’ll follow them.

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Leaders are a bit divided in how to proceed, call me surprised. Some, technically most, want to camp here more or less permanently. I call this a bad plan until we have a reliable food/water source, but it makes sense. We’ve got walls, immediate housing and shelter/safety concerns met, as with a small stash of food. Two others want to take the food with them and head out immediately. I also call this a bad plan. Where the hell would we go? Just pick a direction? There’s forest everywhere. Closest thing we have to a landmark are the pillars of smoke rising from the courtyard when people set up campfires. There was a lot of noise about that, let me tell you.

The last two voices come from Baldie and a woman who decided to agree with him. Or, possibly, he’s agreeing with her plan. Didn’t catch who brought it up first. Anyway, they want to keep most of the people here while some smaller groups scout around. A blend of plans. Or, because calling it a blend is stupid, it’s what the first guys thought of but this time it looks like they’re doing something while we wait to run out of food.

Only two plans is boring. I can think of more than that. Off the top of my head: Set the forest on fire to see who comes to investigate, go back and grab the weapons pile, ring the bell at the top of the temple thing. Now, these are also all bad plans, but I’d rather take five options and choose how I want to die than die because I ran out of options to choose from.

About the only thing that Quiet and I can do effectively by ourselves is ring the bell, maybe, and I’m disinclined to do it because that might fuck over everybody else here. Still, couldn’t hurt to take a look at it. Might be I see something new from the vantage point, and the bell might be broke anyway.

So, diary, I’m put in the really sucky position of agreeing with Baldie on our next move while also preparing to possibly screw a lot of people over. Or provide a huge support. Yay uncertainty.

Hold up. Temple’s got a bell tower. We weren’t the first ones here. What do you think the odds are someone’s already been up there? Pretty damn high. Means there’s nothing to see from up there (WRONG: Means nothing was seen from up there), unless they’re keeping silent to benefit themselves. What, how? The guys that were here first want to keep staying here. They don’t want us to take the food and run. That’s dumb. You’re dumb, brain.

Doesn’t tell me anything about the bell though. Worst case, it works and we can use it as a warning bell (laugh, dammit). Other worst case, it doesn’t work and I get free exercise. Wooooo. Worst worst case, the bell kills everyone in the area when rung.

Probably shouldn’t ring the bell until I know it doesn’t do that.

Catch you on the flip.