Dead End Chronicles (Book 1): Dead End Journal

by Alex San Lyra

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  It took us only twenty minutes to get back. Bibi was in a hurry, but still... it seems the demented are so close to home all of the sudden. They haven’t found the town yet, which is good. At the gates, we were met with surprise, smiles... and some tears. I saw Dr. Cassino as Bibi gave him the bad news. Buba was all hyper to see Stone alive and well, and I was equally happy to see Xandy again too. But as protocol dictates, we weren’t allowed to see them for more than a few minutes. We were taken to the guard’s headquarters to spend the night.

  None of us were infected, so they released us this morning. After breakfast, I could hardly wait to put it all down in my journal. Now I’m going to spend the rest of the day with my brother. I gave myself the day off... we all deserve that much.

  Entry 09

  March 14th, 47

  Hunting trials and a letter

  After our little rescue mission, the whole town was quite moved with what we had done. It’s become a popular story at meal times. The wives of the men we saved came to thank me personally. Of course, it was a bittersweet kind of thing. We got a lot of people’s expectations up, only to frustrate them further by not finding their loved ones.

  Yesterday, I took the time to go speak with Dr. Cassino about his brother. I thought Bibi should be the one to go, but she refused. She said she was no good at that kind of thing... and maybe it was for the best in the end. I used my dad’s disappearance to relate to Cassino and it worked out pretty well. I told him how it had been for me and offered to be there, if he ever wanted to talk. I don’t really think he’ll be calling on me, but at least he knows I care enough to tell him so.

  As for Stone, he went right back to work, going on another scavenging trip. We’re all avoiding the whole region to the east of town, of course. Thankfully, there haven’t been any reports of demented activity around so far. Maybe they were only passing through and already moved on. That’s what we’re all hoping anyway. I wish we knew what the demented were doing out there, if they have behavioral patterns or something. Then at least we could anticipate and avoid them. I’ve been trying to forget the whole thing and focus on the hunting trials.

  In fact, today, we finally started the first round of the Hunting Trials. Instead of calling them “preliminary qualification rounds”, we decided to make them part of the actual trials. We made “real hunting” the fourth and final round. It just felt right, considering all the hype around these trials. It’s been a lot of fun, keeping scores, watching everyone doing their best. Singer offered to help, so I put him in charge of numbering the entrants and keeping scores. For the first round, the shooting range out behind our hut was just too small. We ended up having to ask the council for permission to set it up somewhere else.

  The town isn’t all that big, the only two places that had the kind of space we needed were the kids’ park and the area in front of the main gates. Since blocking the town’s main entrance was out of the question, the park it was. We we’re only going to use the place for a day, so it wasn’t like we were robbing children of their place of fun. Actually, it was quite the opposite. A crowd showed up to cheer the entrants on, like some kind of sporting event. We started right after breakfast. A bunch of people just followed us out of the cafeteria.

  We spent the past two days organizing the whole thing and people got curious, I guess. It was all quite ingenious, really. Using the wheels of one of the bicycles as pulleys, some rope and old rolled up towels, we set up a “moving target” range. The target was about the size of a chicken. It worked like this: Mouse sat on a small bench and pedaled the bike part that made the target move. But he didn’t make the target dart away until he heard the hunter or saw the first arrow. We positioned him so that he wouldn’t be able to see the hunters until they had a clear shot. We set up a fake bush, made out of cardboard, around the kid’s slide. Each contestant had to find his or her way from the entrance of the park to that slide without letting Mouse hear any footsteps. It was awesome. Stone’s the one who came up with the idea. Mouse, Ranger and I put the whole thing together. We should have thought of that ages ago. The moving target range doesn’t just test people’s precision, but also their agility and ability to predict where the target will be when the arrow hits.

  I tried it out myself yesterday. We had to make sure it wasn’t too hard, otherwise we might end up eliminating everyone. It was pretty challenging, but not impossible, and it worked just perfectly today. The entrants all got three tries, with two arrows each time around. In real hunting, if you missed the first shot, the animals would scatter and you’d only have time for a second arrow, if you were lucky. In the trials, a hit on the first shot was worth ten points and on the second, nine points. No hit, no points. We wanted to emphasize that hitting the target was the main thing, first or second arrow didn’t matter as much. After all, the important thing in real hunting is coming back home with something to eat.

  The people that had signed up without really knowing how to use a bow, were the first ones eliminated. It was kind of a last minute decision, if they missed every shot, they were automatically out. Thankfully, some of them realized why we kept an archery class and decided to enlist to prepare for next year’s trials... Yeah, now they’re talking about annual trials all of the sudden. Anyway, some of the guys in our class were actually pretty good. I half expected only two or three would be up to the challenge, but there were at least a dozen potential hunters on the list.

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  Ranger, Buba and Mouse went out to reset the range again, making ready for the next shooting run. Mouse was getting tired of pedaling, so Ranger took over for the next few runs. Lexa and I watched each entrant as they were called up. We didn’t just want to take down scores, we wanted to see how they each approached the challenge. The entrants were all standing in a row, behind Singer’s evaluation desk.

  “Number five!” he called out, “You’re next!”

  It was Nelly, she seemed really nervous. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward. Mimi put a supportive hand on her shoulder. Nelly took up position and waited for my signal. I looked over at Ranger. He nodded at me, letting me know he was ready. Lexa signaled to the crowd to quiet down, so that Ranger would be able to hear any noise from the range.

  “You’re good to go, number five,” I told her.

  She drew her arrow and started walking through the park. Her run was pretty good, until she slipped on the gravel. Ranger, having heard it, started pedaling and the target darted away from her. Some people in the crowd went “Oh.” But Nelly reacted fast, running to the cardboard bush and taking her shot. It was the first ten pointer of the day. The crowd cheered. Nelly looked like she wanted to crawl under a rock. I suddenly realized that all those people were adding an extra feature to the test.

  I waved Lexa and Mouse over to Singer’s desk. “Hey, do you think this crowd will be a problem?” I asked, “It doesn’t look like Nelly likes the attention. I think it might be hurting her focus.”

  “She’s always been a shy one,” Lexa pointed out regretfully, “but what’re we going to do now, tell everyone to leave? We can’t do that. Besides, I think she’d have been nervous with or without the crowd.”

  Singer thought about it for a quick moment then considered, “Well, she just had the best run so far, so...”

  “You’re right,” I said, in a tone of finality, “Forget it. Let’s just cross our fingers and hope stage fright doesn’t get the best of anyone.”

  We reset the range and Singer called out number six. The following ten or so runs were disastrous, double misses all around. But then, a few of our more experienced archery students came up. Danny and Dennis, the Flint brothers, had good runs, both scoring ten points, without making any noise. Greg Jones, the machoman of the class, had a decent run, hitting the target on the second shot. Lennard Gomes was the first one to try going around the other side of the cardboard bush. It was harder for Ranger to see him there, but it was also harder for him to see the target. It
worked out great though, granting him a perfect ten pointer. Some of the other entrants tried the same thing, but failed miserably. Then, it was Mimi’s turn.

  “Number twenty-five!” Singer called, “You’re up!”

  Mimi looked as confident as ever. If anything, the crowd only made her even more competitive. As she waited for my signal, I could see she was completely focused, pacing her breath and flexing her legs.

  When the range was properly reset, I informed her, “It’s all yours, twenty-five.”

  She didn’t even bother to look at me. She just raced out to the shooting position, without making a sound, and took her shot. I could swear she had set the arrow loose without actually seeing the target. The crowd stood silent, in awe for a full five seconds, before bursting into a roar. Lexa, Mouse and I gathered around Singer again.

  “Wow! Perfect run,” I pointed out, “but I think she might have memorized the target’s position.”

  “Yeah,” Mouse agreed, “I got that same impression.”

  Lexa nodded in agreement, but then said, “Is that a problem though? I mean, there is no rule against it, right?”

  “No,” I considered thoughtfully, “and it’s impressive that she actually knew where to shoot without a direct line of sight, but she won’t be able to do that on a real hunt. I guess we have to give her a ten now, but we’ll have to keep an eye on her from now on.”

  Mouse and Lexa both seemed to think giving her a ten was okay, so we sent her back to the line without any further considerations. The other entrants all took their shots, but after Mimi, the only one to score any points was Philly Bookman, another one of our archery students.

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  In the end, out of the fifty or so names on the list, only twenty-five scored any points at all. And, out of those, only fifteen achieved more than a single successful shot. Nelly managed another ten points on her second run and a nine on her third. Mimi is the only one with a perfect final score, straight tens. The both of them are at the top of the list, along with only a few other names. The trouble is the middle group. There are quite a few entrants in it and they’re all really close in performance. After everyone had made their three runs, we informed them we’d discuss the scores and post a list at our hut tomorrow morning.

  When the crowd was dispersing, I spotted Flavian leaving the park. I think he was there watching us with some of his buddies or something. I had almost forgotten he even existed. He left without bothering us, so I didn’t give it a second thought... Actually, I totally did. I wonder what he was doing watching our Hunting Trials. It wasn’t until we started putting together the list of names for round two that I managed to get him out of my mind.

  Sitting down with Lexa and Mouse, we came up with a short list. At first, I wanted to put in fifteen names or so, but Mouse insisted it was better to get down to ten. He argued it would spare us a whole lot of unnecessary work, evaluating people we already knew weren’t going to make the cut. Lexa agreed, and I think he’s right too. In the end, we’ll only be able to take in six new hunters, tops. But who would we keep and who would we cut? We spent the rest of the afternoon taking down names, putting some back in, taking them out again.

  We got down to twelve names, but I just didn’t have the heart to cut anyone else out. I at least want to give them the chance to show us if they have any other talents. Maybe one of the weaker shooters will turn out to be a good tracker, like Lexa. Who knows? That was my argument. I guess Lexa and Mouse both accepted it. By the time the dinner siren went off, we had pretty much settled on our twelve name list. As we ate, Mimi kept asking Lexa if Nelly and her had passed. We just told them the list wasn’t ready yet. Of course with their scores, they must know by now that they’re in already. After dinner, Stone walked my brother and I home.

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  Xandy was falling asleep in my arms. He was getting heavier every day. Stone had actually gone out scavenging that day, thus he hadn’t been able to watch the shooting round. I was telling him all about it, but It was a little weird because he was all smiles next to me.

  Finally, I stopped telling him about the trials and demanded, “Stone, what the hell are you smiling at?”

  “Oh, nothing,” he replied casually.

  “Stone!” I insisted, “C’mon, tell me! Why’re you so happy all of the sudden?”

  “You’re the one who’s all happy, kid,” he countered, “I’m just marveling at it.”

  “What?” I asked unsure.

  “It’s true,” he went on, “or haven’t you noticed? You’re beaming all around. If Lexa were here, she’d say your aura is blazing or something.”

  I frowned at him, not knowing if he was being honest or just pulling my leg.

  “I’m dead serious,” he added, as if reading the question in my face, “This whole hunting tournament thing has really brought you alive. I guess, what I’m sayin’ is, I’m happy for you, kid. It’s good to see you like this.”

  “Oh, thanks,” I said timidly, before correcting him, “It’s not a tournament though, it’s the Hunting Trials.”

  “I’m sorry,” he chuckled, “The Hunting Trials. On that note, you should consider holding an archery tournament or something. Seems like people really loved this whole thing. We could try making it tradition in Harptown.”

  “Why would we want that?” I asked him, “It’s a whole lot of work and for what, someone takes home a trophy at the end? What’s the point?”

  “People need entertainment, kid,” he argued, “and this town is desperate for it. If you give them what they want, they’ll love you for it. And that’s never a bad thing.”

  “Maybe so,” I told him, “but I’ll have to think about it some other time. For now, I have to make sure I’m not recruiting someone who’ll just end up hurting themselves or putting others in danger.”

  “Right,” he agreed, still smiling pleasantly.

  We had gotten to my building. He waited for me to unlock the door before heading home himself. But when I looked back at him to say “Goodnight,” he kneeled and picked something up from the floor.

  He handed me a letter and said, “Looks like someone slipped this under your door.”

  There was nothing written on the envelope.

  “A letter?” I replied, taking it in my hand, “That’s weird. Who could it be?” A terrible thought suddenly occurred to me. “Oh God, you don’t think... Flavian...”

  He tensed his jaw. I quickly opened it and looked down at the signature at the bottom... Singer. I instantly closed the envelope again and looked up at Stone, surprised.

  “So?” he inquired, “Is it Flavian’s?”

  “Oh, um... no,” I replied lamely, “It’s nothing.“

  “Nothing?” he insisted.

  I smiled and tried to reassure him, “It’s nothing to worry about. It’s just... something private... I think.”

  He studied me and accepted, “Okay, then. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” He looked unsure.

  “Goodnight Stone,” I said, “Don’t worry, it really is nothing. Thanks for the company.”

  He nodded at me, then left. I locked up and raced upstairs to tuck Xandy in. For some reason my brother was exhausted that night. He literally fell asleep the minute he was under the covers. Maybe the whole trials thing wore him out. Once that was taken care of, I got the letter...

  “Dear Dana,

  I’ve been trying to find a way of telling you something, but it never seems like the right time. So, I’ve decided to write you this letter. Please forgive me if the timing is off.

  First, I want you to know that, no matter what happens, I’ll always be your friend. I get the feeling you might be afraid of losing my friendship. Let me reassure you, that will never happen. I will be here for you always.

  As for what I wanted to tell you, it really is quite simple and I suspect you already know. You’re an amazing person, a very special girl. You’re a badass huntress and at the same time you have a gentle soul. Life treats you like
crap, but you never lose focus. I’m impressed at how you manage everything that comes your way. To be perfectly clear, I like you Dana.

  Everything about you intrigues me. I’m happiest when I’m around you. I wish I could be there for you more, but I don’t really know how. Anyway, I just wanted to make it clear and official... my heart belongs to you. It has for a long time and I hope you feel the same way.

  Forever yours,

  Singer”

  Entry 10

  March 15th, 47

  Town meeting and other stuff

  Today was one of those days. I thought speaking with Singer was going to be hard... I mean, it was, but damn... that was only a small part of the day, with the hunting trials and the town meeting... it’s crazy. After yesterday’s letter, I was dreading going to the cafeteria this morning. I didn’t know what to say to Singer. I didn’t know if I liked him that way, or if it would complicate things if we... became more than friends.

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