Journal of Barton F. Watts

May 19, 2021

I haven't written a journal in a long time, since I was a kid really. Things have been strange lately, and I decided maybe it isn't such a bad idea to write things down. The power went out two days ago, and I haven't heard anything in the car radio, so I guess it hit the broadcast stations too. Kind of strange how it all keeps going, more or less. A lot of stores are on backup generators, the ones that aren't just have a pen and paper tally. Not too hot outside, and if it had to happen, this is the time of year you hope for. Called some friends to see how they are, everyone's a bit confused about it all, but no one is too worried. Crossing my fingers for power to come back though, I just went shopping the day before the power went out!

May 22, 2021

Still no power...getting close to a week. My cell phone doesn't have much life left, and I don't have a landline, so phone calls are off the list. Last time I tried to call everyone, I got ahold of everyone but Danny...his phone probably ran out of juice. I think I'm gonna take a walk to his place tomorrow, check in on him. I got the coolers out, bought a bunch of ice, put the meat in and some other stuff. Hot as hell today. Ice cream for dinner. Waste not, want not, right?

May 23, 2021

This is why it sucks to not have a phone. Walked all the way across town in the 88 degree heat, got to Danny's and bam, no one home. The bad thing is, I don't know how long he's been gone, but the living room window was busted out. I walked the nine blocks to the police station, made my report, went with two officers, and checked his house. Not much missing, his fridge was bare (not unusual for Danny, he never kept much in it anyhow), looked like some clothes were gone. No sign of Danny, but his car was still in the driveway. Maybe he biked it to his sister's house, or somewhere. Just sucks that someone would smash his window like that. People suck.

May 26, 2021

Still no power. People are getting irate, and the heat doesn't help. It hit 95 today, according to the old school thermometer on old man Wilkins' house. Haven't seen him out recently, but it looks like he's picked the garden today. Still gonna check on him tomorrow. Getting low on some fruits and veggies, maybe he'll trade me some for a ribeye. At least there's a lot of daylight to get stuff done. If only I had something to do. Glad I keep some cash out, I've already heard the grumblings of people who have all their money in the bank. No credit cards, no debit cards...we're feeling the hurt.

'''May 27. 2021'''

Old man Wilkins is a fucking hoot! A dirtier old S.O.B. you cannot ever meet! He had me howling, talking about ripping off lazy hookers in Cambodia about 50 years ago, and all the dope he smoked in the war...he told me to keep stopping by, and if I get to trusting him, he'll let me keep my food in his freezer and fridge downstairs. Says he has enough diesel to keep the generator they're on running for at least another few years. "It'll last longer than a nun's dildo" he said. Crazy old perv.

May 29, 2021

Spent the last day or so drinking beer with Glen Watkins next door, playing rummy 500, smoking some cigars. He let me charge my phone too, off of his solar batteries. I never knew, but he solar tiled the roof. He talked about his setup a bit too, the guest room and all. He said if I want to just move in, it'd be alright, at least til the power comes back. Might take him up on it. Basement is a fortress too. Booze cabinets, beer fridge, humidor...all his creature comforts all set up and secure...guns out the ass. Like, a whole gun store worth. Other weapons too, decoration mostly I think. He took me down to show me the place, and to give me a bag of ice for my cooler. Told him I'll bring everything over tomorrow.

June 1, 2021

I finished moving my stuff over to the guest room. Glen's pretty paranoid...there's a secure hatch to the basement in each room, drops to some tunnel setup. We were playing rummy again, and he started to tell me about some crazy conspiracy garbage about the government 'stress test' programs, these ideas about human behavior and dependency...wild stuff too, like how far one person would go with nasty actions if they can get away with it, or benefit from it...and then he said if this power outage goes much longer, this might be one of those stress tests. He said if its still a blackout around the middle of the month, then this is Uncle Sam playing at something cruel. Scary thoughts, but too crazy to be really real.

June 5, 2021

Happy Cinco De Mayo, eh? Keeping the phone charged, but its useless. No one ever answers. No 911 either. Phone lines are all down, satellites must not be working at all. Glen started telling me a lot more stuff, and I kinda think he's losing his mind. Some of this shit cannot be real, just old man craziness. He started trying to get his CBs and HAM radio to work, no success yet. It's strange. Heard gunshots last night, found out that our only other neighbor on the block shot her husband and herself....a couple in their 50s. I never talked to them, apart from saying Hi or whatever...but now that they're dead, and it's just me and Glen in his big old Victorian...I don't know. Things seem colder, emptier. The stores are all closed, more or less. Shelves cleared, all that. The Kroeger got a shipment yesterday, and the manager just rationed things out to people who came to the store...no money, no trade, just try to make it last. The driver said he came from out of state and things were okay there, but as soon as he hit state lines, there was no power. He radioed out, but never got confirmation of anything. He gave us his handle and told Glen and me to listen on CB 5, he'd stay in touch as long as it'd hold, and keep it on round the clock.

June 7, 2021

We didn't hear from Rick, aka "HardButt", until two hours ago. He said he's only about 40 miles out, and hasn't been able to refuel. He said his laptop is nonfunctioning now, like something sapped its connectivity. He was hard to understand, very static-y. We're handle "OMW and Bartman", a joke about some old cartoon Wilkins watched...I think I used to watch it when I was a kid. HardButt signed off, saying he needed some shuteye. Sounds good to me too, its been hot as balls outside lately, nothing under 90 degrees all week.

June 8, 2021

I have held it together easy to this point...so had everyone else. HardButt was on his CB, said he was attacked by a half dozen people...one hit his hand with a camp ax, cut off his two little fingers...he fought them off with a baseball bat, and radioed us, telling us that things are getting tense. He's heading back toward the main dispatch and going to let them know that there's no power and things are getting bad here. We took in my friend Elizabeth and her brother Bobby after they were coming into town from their camp in the mountains. They had no idea it was this bad...until some crazy bastard pulled her out of the car at a stop sign and tried to drag her to a shed...Bobby busted a soda bottle on the guy's head and stabbed him a few times in the fight... its like people are losing it. The heat today was rough, 99 most of the day. Hazy...and this weird smell. Hard to describe, almost like burnt ceramic or rubber. Faint, but always there.

June 11, 2021

The town is...its....I'm scared. I'm trying to keep tough like Glen, because Lizzy and Bobby are getting really spooked, and someone has to be stable, right? Thing is, this town never had much crime. Pot smoking and jaywalking and small time shit, like any small town, right? Well...now...I went out on the porch and I saw a knife fight, and I can't say what it was over...I didn't watch or ask questions. I went in and told Glen...he deadbolted the doors and told the three of us to just keep cool, don't let anyone in. Garden would wait. Don't leave the house alone.... Why is this happening? What is going on? Is the world going crazy?

June 13, 2021

We heard from HardButt...but it wasn't good. He said that its looking like CB and HAM are unreliable but the ONLY communications we really have down the coast. He was at the Kroeger warehouse, radioing from his truck...and it sounded like hell. We could hear gun shots, screams...he was talking low and fast...said if we didn't hear from him again soon, things were worse. I hope Rick holds it alright. Glen offered him a place here, but he said he's got a wife and kids, and his boss was letting the employees and their families fortify the warehouse, that they had it alright, so long as this doesn't go much longer. That damn smell is out there too. Some sickening haze, but he said it smelled like a slaughterhouse with a tire fire in it.

June 19, 2021

Glen woke us up and got us all outfitted at 7 am. We are all armed now. Windows are all fitted with heavy steel shutters. Liz broke down when we looked outside...some woman was walking down the sidewalk when four young guys, probably late teens or early 20s. I...we saw them grab her....they, uh, they raped her, then, I cannot believe I'm saying this, but they ate her. They started cutting her up and eating pieces of her. Glen heard the noise and went on the porch, shot a couple of the guys with a rifle, then shot her. Liz hasn't talked since. I asked Glen why he shot her, and he said we couldn't help her...she would likely get infected. She wouldn't heal well...physically or mentally. I don't know how I can deal with this if the booze runs out. I feel like washing my eyes with the whiskey instead of drinking it. Glen said that smell just reaffirms his thinking that this is a government 'stress test'. He also told us to keep to the house as much as possible.

June 22, 2021

Bobby saw his old girlfriend today. Glen told him not to. Bobby yelled for her. She told him to come out, go for a walk. Said the police caught the other guys from that stuff the other day. Bobby ran out, and, and he just.

Bobby's dead.

I can't talk about it, just, Liz is in her own world, just out of her head. Glen is having a hard time breathing. Bobby's dead.

June 29, 2021

Been busy fighting. Dozens of them. Trying to get in. They try, then get irritated and attack each other, they rip a couple people apart and eat and sometimes they do things to them, before or after the 'feeding'. Liz just cries. Glen said to keep her away from the window, some of them were kicking Bobby's head back and forth like a soccer ball. I'm not used to it, but I'm not throwing up over seeing these awful sights anymore. I just don't think it'll get any better anymore.

July 1 2021

Glen died. He coughed blood all day, I don't know if he suffocated or drowned or vapor locked, but Old Man Wilkins is dead...just me and Liz now. We'd like to bury Glen, but we can't go out. It just isn't possible. I put him in the big chest freezer...nothing else in it anyway. Goodbye buddy.

July 4 2021

Fuckers tried to burn the house. I got the flames out mostly. They're throwing body parts and burning sticks and garbage and feces at the house like wild animals. Liz is almost a vegetable. I dress and wash and feed her. She just mutters. So weak. So soft.

July 5 2021

Liz talked more today. Said we are all in Hell, dead already. Or its a nightmare. Begged me to hold her. Soft, pretty little Liz. So fragile, so r[PAGES BURNT, SECTIONS MISSING FROM THE NEXT FEW ENTRIES]

July 9 2021

Never thought I'd be the type to take a woman like that. I needed it. So did she. The smell in the air, it just keeps me up, keeps me wanting and alert and ready to just do it ALL.

I shot a bunch of them through the window earlier, just to remind them who the king is. Kill and be feared. Make them bow. Bow or die. [PAGE BURNT, SECTION MISSING]

July 14 2021

Liz so much good woman. MY woman. I take as I want. I am King. I kill many on porch. Air make breathe hard. Some on porch wheeze. Strong ones eat them. Get stronger. I kill strongest ones. When safe, I get dinner for me and woman. MY woman.

J 18 2021

My woman just lay. No more fight. I trap another. New woman. Have two or more maybe. I bring strong bodies in. Eat strong. Feel stronger. Air outside make horny and hungry. Eat big. Take woman much.

J222021

King have four women. Guns empty. Use clubs. Axes. Hammer. Outsiders fear. Radio screech. Can't find talkie voices.

J222222

King women kill self. King see green truck. Take. find more. King strongest. Air make blood out. King not die.

END OF DOCUMENT NOTE: Aerosol version of GH3398-A29 still causes rapid degeneration of bronchial tubes and internal lung tissue. Positive effects with consistent results:Increased libido, loosened inhibitions, aggression increased, self esteem elevated, diminished cognitive and complex reason capacities. Adverse side effects include, but not limited to: Aforementioned respiratory damage, permanent degenerative and/or necrotizing reaction to brain tissue/brain stem/cerebro spinal fluid, catatonia in females.

POINTS OF INTEREST: Rate of cannibalism associated with exposure is consistently high across recent trials. Subjects with type O blood tend to be more resistant to detrimental side effects but ultimately succumb. All subjects with prolonged exposure exhibit greatly diminished pain reactions and/or reflexes.

FINAL EVALUATION: This aerosol treatment is suitable as a secondary or tertiary tactic, but not potent or effective enough to be utilized as a standalone weaponization. Fully recommend review of liquid treatment for comparison, as well as injectable GH3399-A29 program to proceed as scheduled. Aerosol has zero vector transference potential. Further study of subject Watts, Barton F.'s cadaver requested for GH3398-A30 strain development prospect. Requisition forms attached to back cover of file.

- B.C. Division Review Agent #44-QAS1977