Lost In The Footsteps

S_swimmer

The Speedo
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This will be a story and a journal. Each post, I will write a story and then a journal entry. All events that take place in this story have taken place on the actual server. This includes the dialogue. The meaning for the title of this thread will appear in a later chapter.

Chapter One
It took less time than I thought for my legs to collapse under me. I know I have to find shelter soon, for I can see those unforgiving storm clouds inching closer. With a tremendous amount of pain and effort, I manage to pick up my sorry hide and slump against the nearest dead tree. Luckily, there is a branch hanging over me large enough to shelter me from the acid rain storm that soon followed.​
"Damn this horrible new world I live in!" I think aloud. The rain would not stop. I begin to write in my journal to pass the time. My frigid hands shake wildly, so I have to suppress my arm with my body to stop most of the movement. I must look like a fool, being curled up in a ball just so I can write in my journal, I think. It isn't like anybody is here to see me, however. After a couple more quick sentences, I close the journal and lean my head back against the tree trunk, looking straight up at the sky. God, please help me, I think to myself. I sit there against the branch until my fatigue takes over and I drift off to sleep.​
Journal Entry
Day 23​
(The handwriting is very shaky and you cannot make out the first two lines)​
-and I don't know how much longer I can hold out by myself. It seems like more and more mutants appear every night.​
There is a storm raging right now. I have taken shelter under the branch of a dead tree. It's a terrible place to sleep for the night, but it'll have to do. My clothes are wearing down more and more every day. My boots feel like they are about to wear right off. I better sleep now and regain some strength for the next day.​
 

S_swimmer

The Speedo
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Chapter 2
I wake up with a jerk. The storm has stopped, and the sun is rising. Ah, the sunrise. It is such a beautiful thing. It fills me with joy to see that natural wonders like this have survived the nuclear war. I smile to myself, and I just get an overwhelming feeling of hope.After a while of staring at the sunrise, I stand up, grunting. I break off a small branch from the tree (who knows when it might come in handy) and head off. Before long, something on the horizon catches my eye. An abandoned highway! I rush over to it. I quickly scrawl some notes in my journal and step onto the highway. Since I don't really have any direction in this world of solitude, I figure that I might as well see where the road takes me. I choose a direction and head off.​
A few hours later
Walking... So... Much... Walking...​
My legs are about to collapse underneath me. My face is splattered with dirt and soot. My arms hang from my body lifelessly. I am overwhelmed with fatigue. My body aches all over. I stop and take out a piece of stale bread. Biting into it is hard work, and I have to pull the bread away with my arm while I am biting to help rip off a piece big enough to chew. When I first began living off of these, I thought they were horrible. Now, after I have learned to cherish them, they are quite delicious. Funny how the human mind can do that. I remember watching something on TV, before this place went to hell, about a man who was lost at sea and began eating fish eyes and intestines. He said that he actually enjoyed them and thought of them as a treat. I imagine my own brain doing the same sort of thing.​
After I satisfy my hunger, I continue walking. The sun beats down on the back of my neck. I have learned to grow used to the feeling of sweat drying onto my neck and then streaming down again. Then, suddenly, coming into my point of view, I see a building! Could there possibly be another survivor in there? Renewed strength and adrenaline surge through my body. I sprint for the building faster than I have ever ran before. This might be it! I might actually find another life form that isn't twisted by radiation! When I finally reach the building, I yell, "HELLO? IS ANYBODY THERE?"​
I sit there, panting. No response comes.I scream again. "HELLO!?" This time, I hear a voice.​
"Hello? Who is there?" I dash over to where the voice came form and before I know it, I smash into the man's body and we both get knocked off our feet. When we stand up, we look into each others eyes. Ages seem to span the time of the split seconds it really took. The man was the first to say a word.​
"Oh, thank the gods! Someone! ANYONE!" We both say our thanks, huge grins plastered onto our faces.​
"Let's go find some better shelter, then we'll talk," I suggest. So we find a more preserved room and begin conversation.​
"My name is Harold Querrugee," I lie. I have learned over these days that even the survivors are not trustworthy. So I have been going under the name of my Great-Great-Grandfather. "What is yours?"
"My name is Sir Swatafsjkhfuhia, but you can call me Swate."​
"Well, it is an honor to meet you, Sir Swate."
"And you too, Querrugee."​
We sit there for a while, just cherishing the moment of finding another survivor. Before long, the stars come into view and the sun is creeping towards the horizon.​
"It is getting dark," I point out. "Why don't we make base here for the night and head out in the morning?"​
"Sounds perfect," Swate says. We both find some spot on the ground, undust it and place our pillows there (for some reason, we both seemed to have managed to salvage pillows). I write a few quick notes in my journal before my fingers snuff out the candle and I fall asleep.​
Journal Entry
Day 24​
Today, I found a highway. I decided to follow it to the right. Maybe that will give me some direction in this world. I hope I can find a survivor or two.​
(There is a large space before the next few sentences)​
I found a survivor! His name is Swate. He seems like an honest, upright man, yet I still gave him my Great-Great-Grandfather's name. One cannot take too many precautions nowadays. He won't kill me in my sleep, I know that. Today is the first day in the apocalypse that I rest with ease.​
 

S_swimmer

The Speedo
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Chapter 3
In a lonely abandoned building in the middle of a land long-since devastated by nuclear warfare were two young men, preparing for a dangerous trek out into the unknown. They had only recently found each other, and barely know each other at all. Yet, nonetheless, they trusted each other, and decided to team up in their fight against death.​
"I have been following the direction this compass points to," Swate says. "My mother told me stories about a land called the Magna. She described a compass exactly like this one which points to it."
"What is the Magna?" I ask him.​
"Nobody knows," Swate explains. "That is why I am trying to find out what it is. And, hopefully, my father will be there. We were separated during the war."
"Oh, I am very sorry. But, I must ask you, what makes you think he will be waiting there?"
"My father and I thought very alike. Maybe, just like me, he is heading in the direction of the Magna too."
"Well, let's hope he does." We continue walking for a while before another thought comes up in my mind. "Wait, you have a compass as well?"
"Yes, I do," Swate answers as he pulls it out.​
"Very strange," I remark. "I have one exactly like it."
"Well, I found this in the hat I am wearing."
"I found mine in my boots."​
"Strange... very strange." And we continue walking in silence.​
Along the way, I take out my journal and write some quick notes as we go along. We walk and walk along the highway until our legs ache with the worst amount of pain before I notice something.​
"Hold on, Swate, my compass says to go left now," I say.​
"My god, you're right," Swate exclaims. "We must be very near."
Excitedly, we begin walking at a faster pace. I can already feel that we are extremely close to where the Magna lies. We begin running, and gradually pick up speed until we are almost sprinting. Then-suddenly-the compasses turn around and we stop. I take a few steps back and the compass points forward again. That could only mean that this is the exact spot the compass was pointing to.​
"It's... It's..." Swate stutters. "It's just f***ing DIRT!!!!!!"​
"I believe it must be underground," I suggest. Swate seems a little cheered up by that, but not much. So we dig around a little, but there is still nothing but the same barren wasteland that has always surrounded us. I notice that it is beginning to get dark.​
"We should make camp here," I offer. We set up a small fire and warm our hands.​
"Is the Magna even real?" Swate wonders. "Was my mother just telling these stories to get my mind off my father disappearing?"
"No, no," I tell him. "Mothers do not normally do that."​
"Hmm... I suppose you're right. But the compasses point here! If the Magna is real, where would it be?"
"Hm." Suddenly, a thought occurs to me. "Wait... we don't even know where we got these compasses from."
"Well, yes, but they look exactly like the one my mother described," Swate explains. "I just thought... Maybe this one actually was the one in the stories."​
And that's when I find it. "My god... Swate, turn your compass around and look very carefully at it."
He does and sees the engraving. "Why... these are merely toys!"​
"Exactly! This isn't the Magna because these never pointed to it!"
"But... in that case... why do we have them? And who gave it to us?"​
Journal Entry
Day 25​
Swate and I are heading out to find some mysterious place called the Magna. I have also learned that Swate is hoping to find his father there. He has the same compass I have, and they both point in the same direction. That's where he thinks the Magna lies. What I'm worried about is that he doesn't have a clue what the Magna even is.​
We have reached where the compasses point to, but the compasses are just toys! They have been misleading us the entire time. I wonder who must've given us these compasses. Obviously they were trying to lead us away from something, and obviously they wanted us to discover these. When I found the compass in the boots I found lying next to that dead body, I just thought it used to belong to him. Now, I know better. Somebody, somewhere, wanted both Swate and I to have these compasses, and he or she wanted us to follow it. I can't think much about it, or I get a terrible feeling that spreads throughout my body. Anyway, it is time to sleep. I will continue writing tomorrow.​
 

S_swimmer

The Speedo
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This will be a very short one, because very little events happened this day.

Chapter 3
"Swate, I think the sun is coming up."​
With a big grunt and a heavy sigh, Swate picks himself up and opens his eyes. "Yea, you're right," He remarks. "Let's pack up."​
So we extinguish our fire, grab our things and head off. We retrace our footsteps until we are back on the highway. We follow the highway for a while until suddenly, we find-​
"A bridge..." Swate says, bewildered. "An enormous bridge."​
And it is an enormous bridge. With towering red beams curving up to the top of the bridge, and smaller beams coming down from it. But the most interesting thing is a little light shining at the top... It looks like gold!
"I am going to attempt an ascension," Swate decides. "You can stay down here." And he begins climbing the red beam.​
Suddenly, I get a pang of fear. Swate and I are far apart now. If Swate fell, that would be the death of him. If somebody attacked me down on the ground, that would be the death of me. My heart starts beating faster and faster.​
"Swate?" I yell up to him, uneasy. "Swate, I think this is a bad idea!"
"No, trust me, I'm alright!" He yells back down.​
"Swate, seriously! This isn't safe! Get back down here!"
"No! It's alright! I'm perfectly-" And, as if pushed by an invisible hand, he is sent flying off of the red beam.​
"DAMMIT, SWATE, NO!!!!!" But it's too late, and just like that, my partner splatters onto the ground at my feet.​
Journal Entry
(A teardrop smudges the ink, so the date is illegible)​
Swate... Swate is dead.​
 

S_swimmer

The Speedo
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I promised myself that I wouldn't play Solitude until this story caught up with my gameplay. However, I am now extremely Solitude-deprived so I need to wrap this up. So I am going to do a journal entry, journal entry, and story.

Journal Entry
Day 27​
As fate would have it, I found another man today who was looking for someone. He called himself Shad, and he was looking for a woman named Lily. Perhaps she is his lover.​
He let me follow him to a city, but it turned out to be looted already. We went our separate ways.​
Day 28​
After touring the city, I stumbled upon a group of people who call themselves the Blue Remnants - I haven't the foggiest idea why. I told them about Shad and Lily, and they told me that Lily was actually with them. I asked to join them, but they rejected me. I gave my word that I would not tell anybody of their location, so I will keep my word and not share it in this journal.​
I went searching for Shad, but I couldn't find him. I hope he will come back and find his Lily.​
Chapter 3 1/2
It would help if I even knew where to begin looking for the Magna. Now I stand here, wandering aimlessly through the wastelands. It is almost as if I am a zombie. Right now my feet are taking me across a very highly elevated bridge. There are many holes in the bridge, and in one of them-oh my god. A skeleton.​
I jump down and search the skeleton for food or equipment. There are a few, but just as I'm about to grab it, I hear a faint hissing noise behind me. Fear spreads throughout my body. With a slow gulp, I turn my head around and stare at the creeper right in front of me. I know that there is only one way out of this, even if it means almost certain death.​
And, as the creeper explodes behind me, I run and jump off of the bridge.​
 
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