Apocalypse: Story of a survivor

Alright, this is going to be my journal. I will write down every experience in this journal in hopes that my legend lives on. I mean it probably isn't really a legendary quest to save the princess or any shit like that, but I still want people to have something to remember me by. But first, I have to fill you in on the situation. My name is Jeremy Johnston. This new world we're living in is the result of a virus called: plagam extremam infligere, which means violent murder in Latin. The name is usually shortened to Plagam and it affects parts of the immune system that have weakened in adults over 18. It starts with very bad coughing, followed by sharp pains in the stomach, then if said victim urinates before death, the urine is a crimson red color. When the person is just about to die, the virus gives the victim sharp migraines and then heart attack like symptoms kill them. The origin of the virus is unknown but rumors are that it is biological warfare created from top scientists in the Middle Eastern region, parts of Asia, or Secret Communist Scientists in Russia. Some rumors even hypothesize that a branch of the Nazi party has survived and called on top genetic scientists to create the virus. Whatever it is, it left the nation in ruins and the epidemic quickly spread to a pandemic. Now the country has split into four "Mini-Countries" called Territories. The four American territories are: The Southern States, The Northern Ruins, West Coast, and Middle America. Nobody in the Americas knows what happened to the other countries.

OK, now imagine an apocalypse and what it looks like. This is not what most people would be thinking. The grass is still green, the trees still grow, buildings are not destroyed, and animals haven't died out. The roads aren't in the best condition but that is because most people our age don't know how to pave the roads. The only damage to the buildings is something that has been happening for the longest time: Graffiti. It is used for communication by many small time gangs. I personally don't like it but whatever floats their boat I guess. Money has become scarce because the banks where most of the money was kept are now locked down and nobody can get in, meaning that there is a major deflation of the cost of money. Luckily for me I have stored a bunch of money in a safe that me and my family kept before this happened.

Now for some background on me. Fifteen at the time, I was asleep when I heard a news flash on the T.V. All of the adults in the county where infected by some disease. I switched to national news. All in America where infected by the looks of it. I checked on Mama and found the worst: It struck her too. She was in the beginning stages of the virus. She told me and my brother to bring her to the doctor’s office while violently coughing. It took about 30 minutes to reach the doctor. The doctor took blood tests and found the virus. Then HE started having sharp stomach pains and VERY bad coughing. That means that it's VERY contagious. Mama started having migraines and me and Justin sensing it was time, started to try to reassure her that it was going to be all good. She then left us, just like that. I had tears running down my eyes. I silently promised that me and my brother would live our new lives to the fullest, not taking anything for granted. Because that's what she'd wanted. We drove back home and Justin parked the truck. We packed valuables. We found a shed to call home because it is easily  We called our Great Pyrenees dog PeeWee to the truck and we drove back to the shed. We had lived there a few days in solitude with Justin going out to check the town and me going to find food in the wild.Then one day the door was kicked down and Justin was stabbed. The leader said they were after the money we had. I slashed one with my cavalry sword. I then proceeded to cut the legs off of the second closest one. I finally decapitated the one that stabbed my brother. I then apologized to Mama for letting Justin die. I had a few tears run down my cheek so I wiped them off. I then walked over to the leader and saw a tattoo of a rattlesnake and under it was written: Southern Rattlers. I remembered that. I walked out and there was a guy with a machete. He told me to be careful around town before the Cottonmouths caught me. After asking about the Cottonmouths, I found that the Cottonmouths are part of a gang in the Southern States called the Serpents and there are many branches which control the Teritorial Areas. The main branches in the Southern States are the Cottonmouths, the Rattlers, the Copperheads, and the Corals. Then I asked about the Rattlers. He said that they are one of the worst branches, known to hiss as they kill you. They even made some milk jug shaker rattles to simulate the rattlesnake's trademark rattle. Fucking creepy as shit! I went back to the shed and went to prepare for the worst.

I set my journal down and went out to check out the remnants of Poplarville. It was in remarkable condition. Contrary to popular belief, this apocalypse didn't destroy everything. Buildings were only covered in graffiti, and roads were cracked a little bit due to people not knowing how to tend to it. Justin was right about his surveillance. I strolled by a store with a wooden sign that read: George's Exotic Pharmacy. I decided to check it out. My friend George was giving a bag of weed to Cory, another person I knew. I asked George how things were and instead he showed me his valuables. Well there were lots of drugs and pills I've never even heard of. The prices weren't too shabby either. About five dollars for a brick of weed. Deflation hit this place hard as it's usually about 50-100 dollars. I took the ones that were supposed to be painkillers and went to see if any other people I knew opened up any stores. Dillan opened up a Liquor Store (of course),  Ashlynn started a prostitution gig, and Matthew opened up a weapons shop. I went up and looked around. I found some brass knuckles and I liked them so I bought them. Then I saw two Alaskan cutting knives so I bought them. I was amazed as the total cost was about $50 for a $120 deal. Weapons had the highest value out of everything though. He had a welding torch that he let me use for free so I welded the blades of the cutting knives to the brass knuckles. I went to the school to see what was going down there. It had graffiti all over with the words Brown Recluse. I went to the gym and saw a bunch of gang people training. I met with their leader (a friend named Justin Dugas) and asked about the Rattlers. He was shocked and asked what I needed to know

I said "I killed a trio of Rattlers and am going for the head because they killed my brother."
"Well that is pretty bad, but doing it yourself would be suicidal and we are busy with a war with the Garters" he replied
"Can you give me some info?" I asked
"Yes, the Rattlers are a branch in the Serpent gang, which is the political head of the Southern States. Mean mother fuckers. There are nine branches including the Rattlers: The Cottonmouths, Copperheads, Corals, Kings, Pines, Greens, Racers and the Garters. At first, the gang seemed to bring stability to the Southern States, but this is not the case. They are evil and demanded VERY high taxes which most people couldn't even pay. If you don't pay, they kill you slowly and painfully and anybody with you as well. So when this dispute with the Garters is over, I will help you one hundred percent. Your best bet is to find a group of people who have danger ratings of about 3.9 and above. But that is very hard to find. Also If you took out a trio of Rattlers I would clock you in at about a 4.7 danger rating. I would be proud as my gang has a danger rating of about 3.4 as a whole with me as the majority as a 2.1" he explained
"What's the danger rating?" I asked
"Well that is how dangerous you are. it is measured from 0-10. Most people average at about 0.5 and don't even survive a skirmish with Greens or Garters." He answered
"Ok thanks and if you need me to, my new gang will help y’all." I said walking out

I stumbled upon a wanted poster and read it:

                                                                                            Wanted:
Two males aged 15 and 16 danger rating combined: 10. Individual: 4.9 and 5.1. Wanted Dead. No prisoners. Charged with killing a platoon of Cottonmouths. Top dollar to any who kill them and present a local Serpent gang the heads. Last seen in Lumberton

"Huh well I know who I'm looking for." I said to myself as I walked up to the truck

I made it to Lumberton after a good drive and decided to look for some old friends of mine: Aaron and Samuel. When I got to their house, they weren't there so I checked their barn. It was practically a fortress. Large layers of oak covered the outside as a low-budget wall as their grandparents owned a lumber business and food was plentiful as his grandparents were also in the livestock industry. The roof was thick layers of steel, pounded down and nailed to stay on the roof. I knocked on the door and had another familiar face started talking to me. It was Aaron. He noticed me right away and asked if I needed a place to stay.

"Well I would need to get some of my stuff but this shit is crazy you fixed this place up!" I shouted
"Yeah, but why are you here?" Aaron asked breaking his nice gesture.
"I want you to tell me if you can find the two that took out that platoon of Cottonmouths." I said
"You've come to the right place" He said
"You can help me find them?" I asked
"No they're looking for me and Samuel" he replied
"HOLY FUCK!" I shouted "Well I want to assemble a team to destroy the Serpents, Rattlers in particular, so can you help me?"
"Yes we have problems with the Serpents as well as you can see." He chuckled
"Ok come with me I got to get my stuff." I said starting up the truck.

We arrived at my shed. I packed up all of my clothes; I got PeeWee in the truck. I also packed up all of the blades that I kept. We then drove back and stopped in town to see if we could find anything. We found another friend. Robert Reeves. He quickly realized it was us and started talking to us about how he was doing. Well like the latter of us, he was wanted for messing with the Serpents. He had a little battle with a Coral and barely got away. We went to the Exotic Pharmacy and saw a wanted poster of Robert. We figured out that he is a 4.5 which is pretty high it seems. We took the poster down and burned it. Didn’t want him getting worried over it. We got back to the barn and we fixed up our rooms. We souped it up with some crazy shit too we have a shower, electricity running to it and everything. And without people to cut it, we're not getting billed. That might change when get to a point to where the fuel source is dry but that would take a lil' while. I got out the computer and stuff and hooked it up. We had a way to contact other people that had access to tech now. Most people's computers broke because of lack of experts, but I'm pretty good with computers so I could keep mine running. Then another eerily familiar face shows up. It was Aaron and Samuel's cousin, Kayla. Should've known she'd be there. Me and her were dating for a while then broke up and ain't seen each other since then. She slapped me then said that she accepts my apology. Good that she got down to the point at least. While I was getting ready for bed and fell asleep.

Me and Aaron decided to check out one of the grocery stores the next morning. We bought some painkillers and other pills, and some weapons for anybody that would need them. I decided to go hunting with a bow that me and Aaron made. I waited for about an hour then a deer started running so I quickly shot it. Then I figured out why it was running. A big ole grizzly ran up and looked at me. No guns so I was fucked. I ran over and climbed into a tree. Bears can climb trees I know, but if when it gets up, I make it fall, the fall can hurt it then I can jump off and stab him with extra impact. It started to climb up and as soon as he got 20 feet in the tree, I jumped on the limb and instantly jumped to another limb as the one it was on fell. I then climbed down to about 6 feet up and jumped on its head to finish it. I caught a glimpse of something horrible. A camera attached to it and a Copperhead sign painted into its fur. It was a search bear. I broke the camera and searched for any tracking devices. I couldn't find one so I skinned it right there and drug the meat from the bear and deer to the base. After a good meal and a couple of beers, we were getting ready for bed.

I walked around outside when I saw something I didn't like. A guy about 100 feet away with a bloody face, mangled body, and was limping towards us. I quickly ran to him cutting knives in hand in case it was a trick. When I got to him it was my friend Taylor Miller

"Miller! What the fuck happened to you?!" I asked
"About 10 garters. But their lack of training made it easy to escape." he replied
"Well let's get you fixed up" I said giving him a shoulder.

We got back to the base and left him in the infirmary for a while. We didn't have high-tech equipment but we did our best. Me and Samuel decided that we should go get some equipment from the hospital to use. We drove down there and found that the hospital was a greens training base. We called Robert and Aaron to the scene and when they got there, we walked in and just took out guards one by one quickly and silently. We finally got to the supplies and there was a Coral hanging around. He saw us and didn't see any tattoos so he attacked. Samuel pulled out a katana and cut at him but he jumped over the swing only to be hit with a sledge that Robert had packing, suddenly sending him flat on the floor. I then stomped on his face and slit his throat. We then got the stuff and got out. Then, Aaron and Samuel started carving BB into their foreheads.

"Samuel, Aaron what’s that for?" I asked
"That's our sign." Aaron said
"THAT COULD LEAD THEM TO US!" I shouted rather loudly
A guard came in "HEY! What was that!?"

I quickly advanced and sliced him to pieces. We loaded up the rest of the supplies and set them up at home so Miller could heal faster. We went to the Exotic Pharmacy and found someone there. He was different though. He was dressed like a Roman soldier wearing a wolf pelt.

"Braxton?" I asked
"NO! My name is Caesar (Pronounced Kie-sar). Leader of the Legion."
"Oh God, you were knocked out playing Fallout New Vegas weren't you?" I asked
"What are you talking about? I hold a vast army of Legion soldiers." He said with a serious gaze


I punched him in his jaw, knocking him out, and then brought him back to the base. He woke up and started yelling at us, so I started talking to him.

I said "If you have a vast army of Legion soldiers, then you can help us defeat the Serpent gang, right?"
"Yes I will get my army prepared for the fight. But you must first accept the mark of Caesar and swear allegiance to the Legion." He said
"We will have a very prosperous alliance." I said
"Well it's a deal. The Legion is now allied to... What do you call yourselves again?"
"The Southern Brotherhood” I said
"And what is going to come out of this alliance may I ask?" asked Braxton.
"We will give you all of Baxterville when we get the serpents flushed out" I said not thinking he really had a huge army

Braxton then pulled out a walkie-talkie and signaled in some people. There actually was enough for a small army, having around 50 people. They all made a camp near the base and stayed there. We kept Miller around to guard the base until we could truly trust the "Legion Army". We were in town getting some gas when we saw another wanted poster: there seemed to be many wanted criminals in the Southern States. The criminal's name was Cade Smith. Seemed familiar so I looked at the danger rating. He was a 4.6. We decided to look for him. I asked Aaron if he knew anything about this Cade guy.

Aaron shouted "JEREMY!"
"What?" I replied in an agitated voice
"Cade was one of our BEST FRIENDS!" he yelled
"OH SHIT! Now that I think of it, he was a good friend. Didn't he live in Dixie?" I asked
"Yes he did. So let's go" said Aaron

I started up the truck and started up for Dixie. We made it and went to the busiest part of town. We saw a commotion down by their stores. It was Cade fighting some bounty hunters. Aaron threw his spear and hit one as I ran in and punched the second with my cutting knuckles. Cade took care of the last with a kama sickle. I wish I could have got a pair of those, but I like my cutting knuckles.

"Aaron? Jeremy? I thought y'all were dead by now. I'm honestly surprised I've survived this long." said Cade
"Yeah so we saw your poster. You're wanted by Serpents?" I asked
"Yes. I killed a pair of Cottonmouths." said Cade
"Ok! Time to go now" said Aaron

We left and headed back to the base. We got out of the truck and about five Rattlers where running over to the base. I ran after them holding my cutting knuckles tight as Aaron threw some knives at the attackers. Out of nowhere Robert runs out and smashes one's skull and cripples the legs of another. I make it to one of the other ones and pull off a sweep kick. He hit the ground and I dropped a knee on him and started unleashing hell on his face. I slit the crippled one's neck and before I made it to the fourth, Aaron pulled the attacker's head into his knee and stabbed his back repeatedly. Cade used his Kama sickles like scissors on the last one's head. We buried them. Leave no evidence behind. We drove over to my old house to see how the horses where doing. Yeah, I can't ride that good but I'll get the hang of it and traveling by car will be fucked when gas runs out, so yeah looks like horses are in. I checked on my horse Chilo. Looking a little thin since there isn't any horse food, but in good health. I also got my brother's horse HollyWood. I looked for where we used to spill horse feed all the time and found some oat plants. We took a bunch and decided to plant them for food. Me and Cade rode the horses back and Aaron drove the truck back. I went to my room and sat on the cot that I had made. I turned on the IPod and had some 2pac playing. Cade came in and we decided to make some weapons for horseback. I'm using a Halberd attached to the end. Cade is using a cavalry sword. Later that night, I decided to go to the museum to see if there was anything cool there. I stole a pair of gauntlets and went to Matthew's shop. I cut the blades off of the brass knuckles and welded them to where they were on the gauntlet's knuckles. I then was talking to Miller and he got my IPod to play whenever I started to fight.

Then I talked to Braxton.
“Yo Braxton!” I shouted
“Caesar! My name is Caesar!” he yelled
“So can you help us?”I asked
“What do you need?” He asked
“I need a help with a war” I explained

He agreed and we all went over to the school with a majority of the Legion soldiers and we kept Samuel at the base to keep the rest of the soldiers in check. I arrived and started some conversation with Dugas.

“Well what brings my lost friend to my base?” he asked
“I came with a small army to take out the Garters once and for all.” I said
“Well shit let’s invade their main camp right now.” Said Dugas

We went to the camp and shot fire arrows at all of the buildings. They swarmed out and then started to run at us in retaliation. I signaled Braxton to send his soldiers in a full-scale attack and the Brown Recluse attacked so me and my gang ran down in the crossfire and saw a horrible sight. A King. Guess he was the head of this operation. He grabbed a Recluse and threw him into a group of Legion soldiers. I ran over and threw a punch at him. He dodged with incredible speed and threw a kick at my head. I dodged grabbed the leg and sent him to the ground. I got one punch on his chest, causing a deep bloody gash, before he kicked me off and advanced again. He was losing blood giving me an advantage. As soon as he started going light headed, I struck one last time, killing him.I went to the main building and broke all of the communications equipment to where they couldn’t call for help. Then when all of them where killed or ran, I told Dugas that I could let his gang hang around the base.

The Recluse set up camp fast. They were now based in tree houses located about 50 yards to the west of the base. I drove to town to ask Matthew if he could supply the armies with weapons.

"Yo Matt!"
"What's up Jay? What do you need?" he asked
"I wanted to see if you could supply an army with weapons." I said
"How many people are in this army?" he asked
"Well about 150 in total." I said
"I could get y'all hooked up I guess but what is it for?" asked Matthew
"Well we are sorta in the middle of a war right now and we need better equipment." I answered
He replied. "Well I think I can help."
"Alright, get some people to load it up and I'll get our men to pick it up about 2/3 of the way" I said

Well I signaled to the base to send about 20 Legion soldiers and 30 Recluse with Aaron and Cade to pick up the supplies. I traveled with the supplies to Lumberton. I would get supplies from Lumberton's stores, but they are all run by some some small time gang calling themselves Blue Lightning. I decided that I would get into contact with them later with some backup.

Me and Aaron went and hunted some. I had the food plot that was about 100 yards west. Aaron went over to the other plot that was 70 yards east of the base. I waited about an hour when an 8-point buck walked into my sights. I pulled back the bow and let go. The arrow whizzed through the deer and hit the tree behind it. All I had  to say is damn. Guess we sharpened the arrows pretty good. I brought my kill back to the base and me and Cade cleaned it since Aaron wasn't there. I decided to try to tan the deerskin so I could let PeeWee have some leather armor.

I went to Hattiesburg to go to the sporting goods store. I got some football chest pads and a football helmet. The best part was that nobody claimed the store so it was free. I then went over and tore out some road signs then brought all of my stuff to Matthew's store. I got about 2 inch sheet of metal out to the signs to use as armor over the football equipment and made armor for the areas that the pads didn't cover. I then spray painted the new armor grey.

I then proceeded to develop a strict training program to toughen us all up. I thank God for the internet not crashing on us yet. I guess some of people are still smart enough to keep the signal going. Well I looked up Rush Fit by Georges St. Pierre. We also all studied Gracie Jiujitsu and Krav Maga military combatives. Me, Braxton, and Dugas watched and we put the training onto our teams to see how well it worked.

First thing in the morning I woke up to see if anything was coming our way like I always do. Didn't see anything unusual so I just proceeded to wake everyone up. Me and Aaron went over to see if we could talk to those Blue Lightning guys. We told them about the Racers and they decided to join us. They were close enough to not need to move closer to the base and it'd be better if they didn't look like they were allies.

The Racers came knocking on our door midday. They came with a full force to so I sent Cade out to get the Blue Lightning. They attacked and I realized why the Racers got their names. They were all exceptionally fast. I could barely keep up. I was surrounded by machetes  clashing, wooden clubs knocking people out, and arrows flying all around. I had three on me. One was behind me so as the one in front of me swung, I ducked and he hit his comrade. I punched the one I dodged, severing his artery, and sliced the third one with a fluid swing. Just then one almost snuck up on me when Aaron sent an arrow right through his eye. Dugas hit one with his club and busted his skull. Samuel cut through five of them in a fluid spinning fashion. Another came at me, I swung, he dodged. Robert was there to intercept the guy before I could retaliate. Thank God for friends. Miller then threw a boomerang with knives on it at the leader. It hit his stomach and only got him mad. I kicked in his shin, and punched him with my bladed gauntlet, cutting his face up, he slapped me with a bullwhip, Miller came in and kicked his face in using his metal cleats. Right as he was getting up, I pulled out my cavalry sword and decapitated him, nice and smooth like. After about ten minutes, the remnants of the Racers ran, leaving behind weapons and money that dropped from their ripped pockets. We looted the bodies and picked up what we could find. We stored it in a chest that Cade had made sometime ago.

The next morning me and Miller rode into town and asked who was still alive. We heard a name that would be pretty useful: Mitchell Stafford. We asked around for him and found him in the slummy part of Poplarville. We also found Tyler Tynes, who could also be of use to us, we needed more numbers after all. So we got back to base and found two dogs in our yard, A blue and a red heeler. We could use these to help herd cows. I named them Buddy and Cinch, because I used to have dogs of those names. I tanned some leather and fashioned some armor for the dogs. I found a good tomahawk for Tyler and a double bladed axe for Mitchell. We realized that if we were going to be able to fund our fight against the Serpent gang, we'd need a center of commerce, a place for people to spend their money. We found an area behind the cowfields and started building little sheds. We built a pen and rode to gather the cows into it. Then we had a pen for the horses that other people would undoubtedly bring. We also started making kennels for the dogs that people would bring. Then we made signs to hang in the major towns about the houses being for sale. Many people came to buy a house. We also had to explain the ground rules of the place.

Rule One: Murder is not tolerated. It is ALWAYS met with death unless proven accidental
Rule Two: Assault with a weapon is not allowed. Met with incarceration for a set amount of time depending on severity
Rule Three: Those who don't pull their share, don't stay.

                                                                                  *To Be Continued Some Other Time*