[[All entries are assumed to be written in Russian. For the sake of this Journal the entries are translated into English so the players can follow the story as it progresses.]]

March 8….

There are three of us…

I took a trip around the city, looking for a better way to supplement my income, seeing as how work, actual work was scarce. For the past few days, Rot-heads had been staying away and smaller numbers have been spotted. I can’t tell if its because they’re becoming more intelligent or if we’ve just been doing that good of a job keeping them at bay. This is an island after all, and at this rate, there won’t be any left to hunt. Maybe some will wash in from the sea, and the cycle will start all over again. Getting back to the point, I made my first visit to the Dollhouse, which is aptly named, as its the City’s only whorehouse, and seems to have been in better shape in the past. There are a few that frequent the place I’m sure, but it seems like its losing a bit of business these days.

When I got inside, one of the women were there, seems to have been the only one working at the time, but the roster was sitting on the table, openly. Suppose they want people to know exactly who to look for. There were a few names I recognized on there.. One of them can and will be put in a very difficult situation. Still, when the one, woman that was working finally came over, I asked her about the owner of the building. Apparently the woman packed her shit and left the others to fend for themselves. They have no boss quite clearly, and have been making enough just to keep the lights on. That alone is telling me what I need to know about the type of workers to expect in that place. When I asked for more information, like how they make their money, the woman told me she couldn’t go into details. Ironically, she immediately asked me if I was interested in her services, and I reminded her that she couldn’t go into details, so I wouldn’t know what the services were. Long story short, I left. Had other things to do, but seems an opportunity is knocking.

Went to make the Delivery at the Trade Company after that. Surprisingly, there was someone other than Cake, or that idiot of a ‘Business Partner’. That business partner, may be the reason why I don’t trust Cake’s business sense. She was already a bit of a snake with her business dealings, trying to cheat her clients rather than work with them. I may be a pirate, but when I have a paying client, I want a healthy business relationship to improve retention, not a reputation for being a snake, which will cut into profits. Furthermore, the fact that she has a business partner, who clearly is not part of whatever crew she formed, is concerning. They don’t have any information between the two of them, which tells me that whoever he is, he’s going to be trouble, as she made no mention of this when I met her. Yes, I don’t see myself having too many relations, or dealings in this place. Getting back to the point, I delivered the supplies that were on the list, the things I was able to find, and in doing so, guy named Red, offered me a side job. A bounty.. only pays $200 but I’m not greedy. This is an opportunity to get back into what I’m good at. For the sake of information security, I wont’ put the details in this book, not until the job is complete at least. Just so happens that Evangeline knew exactly who the target was. Why am I not surprised? Still, I needed eyes around the city, so that’s the first step. Jade will be essential, if she doesn’t do anything stupid, like try to hunt down the idiot herself…

Still, after leaving the ATC, I went to Coach’s, mainly to tell Jade what i needed her to do. I’m pretty sure when I said ‘if you see him’ she took it as meaning ‘go fetch him for me’. Knowing her, that’s exactly what she’ll try to do. Still, I decided to hang around for a moment. That guy, Domenic, was there and it seemed like he had a new girl to keep his attention. The way he moved, and messed with her. I couldn’t tell if he already knew her, or if he was just thirsty and trying to convince her to give him a drink of herself. She didn’t seem to mind it, but it felt like too much effort on his end. Evangeline showed up not long after, rolling one of her large soup tanks again. For the most part things were civil, but I wasn’t the only one that noted how she dressed. There were changes in her, yes, but she still seems to be forcing whatever game she’s playing on everyone else. Furthermore, she seems to be going out of her way to get my attention again. It feels like one of those “Notice me Senpai!” moments. Maybe I’m looking too deep into it. It’d only been a day since she ran out on us, and she’s acting like nothing happened. Suppose that’s a good thing, as we don’t need everyone in our business, but at the same time its a bit ironic that she just spend the night before yelling at me about why i don’t see her as anything more than what she is.. or why i don’t see her ‘trying’ to do better, or whatever it is. She only clung to one thing I said which is telling me that anxiety isn’t her only problem. She has some overwhelming fear of being rejected, of being alone, and she puts far too much effort in getting the approval of others. She keeps trying to be someone else’s idea of perfect, and doesn’t realize she will never be good enough. I don’t know what game she’s playing, trying to stay in my good graces I guess, but whatever.

Another concern that was raised was how jade and Domenic seemed so chummy. Jade demanding the man’s attention for some private chat, or whatever. She had some sort of Vendetta against him, and he’s just toying her around. She’s becoming more and more like Amber every day, and that is bothering me. Worst, she was going to attack the man right there in public, after I just told her we had a fucking job to do? Really? She really needs to keep her priorities in line. Sometimes she really is like a rabid dog, pulling at her leash for a steak just out of her reach, in front of an open gate. She will choke herself to death, to reach the bloody meal in front of her, then when the leash breaks, she’ll find temporary relief, then wait for the next meal to be thrown in front of her. The gate could be open, and there could be a flock of sheep in the field just beyond, but all she sees is what’s in front of her. Once she has that, she’ll crawl back into her corner somewhere. She thinks far to small, but if it works for her, it works for her. I’ll do the thinking, she just needs to strike when I tell her to.

Anyway, there was some drama between Jade and Domenic, and neither one of them seem to be willing to tell me what the fuck was going on. Jade is keeping secrets again.. and her excuse was that she didn’t want to bother me with something that she could handle. Again, Bullshit. We know her track record for ‘handling’ problems. 0% success rate. The problem only gets worse, and I am the one that has to pull her ass out of it. Just like she tried to ‘handle’ Evangeline, and thought that killing her would make her learn. Jade + logic = Epic Failure. Nevertheless, it wasn’t about what she could handle, it was about whether or not that man was crossing boundaries that he knew existed. When it came out later that he was blackmailing her, I just shot her a look and shook my head. A real winner he was, especially since she had her hands all over him the first night she met him. Stupid. What did she think was going to happen? I can’t and won’t keep cleaning her messes. There was more drama between Domenic and Evangeline. Apparently whatever happened that night, has both of them at each other’s throats, or whatever. Not my problem. She doesn’t live with me anymore, she’s not part of my family by her own decision… so she’s not bringing that shit to my door anymore. I left, and she made a point to keep offering me things, like fuel for the ship, a candy bar for the road. I am not going to sit here and try to mull over why she’s being so nice. She didn’t want to hear what I had to say.. She took everything the wrong way, and only cared for the parts that she wanted to hear. Basically, if it didn’t sound the way she wanted, she didn’t listen. She didn’t want to. She hears what she wants to hear. Again.. not my problem. Not going to risk words being taken out of context.. again. I mean, really. I said, ‘We are all heathens,’ and she heard ‘We are animals,’ and ran with that. Yeah…

When I left, Jade followed apparently. Was heading back toward the dollhouse, and we just happened to come across a few animals to hunt. The things were running about as though they were spooked. A few Turkeys, a goat. Things that don’t usually congregate. Didn’t hit me until later why this was a thing, but we Hunted them. Did good.. One of them we couldn’t use though.. it had a chunk bitten out of it, so I just tossed it aside. However, the blood had attracted the rot-heads. There was a small horde on that end of the town. Needless to say, it was following something, but I didn’t know what. In the midst of the chaos of killing these things, there were two people, women, strays that we came across. one all the rot-heads were dead, Jade said something that caught my attention. “Lyon.” I stopped and looked back, seeing another girl fall out of the bushes. Thought it was another rot-head at first, and was about to shoot her before she said, in that panicked voice that she swore to fuck she wasn’t dead. Lyon, and Raevan. They were the last two to disappear, and it was because of that, we ended up leaving the shelter of the ship. We were looking for them.. and holy shit.. we finally found them.

It was dark by the time Lyon stopped crying and managed to let go of me. Now I know who the Rot-heads were following. They were chasing them. That explains why there were so many of them in one area. I managed to pick up a bit of loot from the corpses, and we found our crew. Not surprised any of the guys weren’t with them… I came across a few that had already turned, but they’d always been more about themselves. The women always had more conviction and determination. They understood it was about survival, not about badasstitude.. well, all the women except Jade. Either way, we ended up heading back to the trailer, hauling all the food and loot back. More of us attracted more attention, but i didn’t care. The family was back together.. and this was a win, either way you look at it.

Four little kittens, jumping on my bed. I laid down to rest my head… Lyon, Jade, Raevan, and Danya said..

I’m so bad at this.. but you get the point. I’m happy…

There were three of us… now we’re all together again.