Chapter 3 - Decisions

Jude woke up multiple times during the night. His mind had been wandering the previous day’s events, from the morning with the fox to the horrible truth of the destruction of his village, his surrogate family. He woke up, caught a squirrel with ease, and ate it raw.

As he ate it, he wondered what would become of his life without the people he knew and depended on. He was certain that he could no longer live a life like he did, but what could he do? Could he join the savages off the coast, live as a wild man in the dead city, or should he sail to the mainland in search of something? But he didn’t know what it was exactly, that he would be looking for. Not knowing, he opened the leather bound book and began reading.

The book seemed simply to be a diary of Survivor’s life since a few years back. The earliest event mentioned in it was the unusual catch of three wolves by a group of hunters, an event that had happened four or five years ago. Using that as a basis, Jude was able to estimate the age of the entries.

Most of the entries simply seemed to be reflections and questioning of the pre-war era. Jude read these carefully, for he had always been curious as to what the world had been like in those times. To his surprise, he learned that it was not a peaceful age, and that only five years before the invasion the Earth had been embroiled in a massive war.

However, Jude was most interested when he read the last entry. It was by far the longest entry in the diary. It spoke was more a summary of Survivor’s life in a few pages, rather than a day-to-day account of survival. It was written as if Survivor had known of the impending attack, and was doing this to speak to those who would live.

After reading it, Jude turned through the last few pages. They were all blank, except then Jude noticed that two pages were stuck together and appeared to be one. Splitting the pages, Jude looked at the text written there. And for the first time in the journal, Jude was unable to read what was written.

There was a single sentence, written in Roman lettering, but not of the language Jude knew. It said, “Ukl shïkal ûkaj kif ukl Kryonomicon”. And of these six words, only one had any visible roots. Kryonomicon.

Jude closed the book, and lowered his head. The book fell out of his hands into the glass below. And it was then that Jude made his decision.

He would leave the dead city, and sail across the coast, to learn of what Survivor had written. Even if it would take him his whole life, he would search, and learn, and discover what it was that Survivor knew that he never told anyone.