Day Seven-Thirty-Six: Roundup

In my dream, he was wearing his glasses when he died. I don't know if the distinction makes any difference, but there you go.

Grylock... Grylock is gone. Jeffrey went wandering off to kill himself; I, stupidly, went after him; Grylock apparently came after both of us. He crippled one of the Nothing's legs and gave me time enough to pull Jeffrey away from the Nothing. Grylock paid the price. Didn't even get the chance to bury him, because... there was so... so fucking little left...

Traveller. Left in the night. Just plain gone.

Nagi. Wounded by a trap. Forced to turn back.

Plato. Abducted by ghost rats. Presumed dead.

Plato's rat. Abducted by ghost rats. Presumed dead.

Logan. Disappeared while battling the Nothing. Presumed dead.

Celine. Crushed by the Nothing. Definitely dead.

Grylock. Pierced by dozens of the Nothing's tendrils. Definitely dead.

And that's on one trip. One fucking trip through the desert. Virtually my entire team, wiped out so I can meet one man - and I don't even know if I'll ever get to see the fucker. I came here to save my friends and family, and now... now it seems like I'm getting them all killed, in the pursuit of Iko.

Grylock. I knew you were going to die, but... fuck. At least you went out like a badass, and not sucumbing to whatever disease the poisonheart bled into your veins. You acted like a real shithead, and we were never friends, but you were one of us. I'll miss you.

Things got worse for Jeffrey and I, of course. How could they not? I was pulling dead weight around a dead city, and even though Grylock managed to take down one of the Nothing's legs, he left the other intact. It can still drag itself around, and now that it knows we're here, it's dragging itself full time. There are barely any buildings left to hide in. Most of Below is rubble... even though we can plainly see intact buildings in the distance.

At the moment we've hidden ourselves in the gutted remains of a mansion, down in a cellar. It's more spacious than the last cellar we found, though if the Nothing finds us size probably won't matter. It's big enough to simply collapse the roof. Should that happen... we're dead. No two ways about it.

Jeffrey's no help. He's even worse than before. I don't know what prompted him to attempt suicide again, but I doubt he'll give it another shot. Grylock's death dropped the idiot into a useless stupor. He'll move around if I tug him, eat if I give him food, drink if I put water to his lips, but that's all. The bastard's non-responsive.

One of my best friends. Heh. Yeah. That's a laugh. Right now I'd take a blind, mute, crippled, ugly dog for a companion over Jeffrey. At least the dog would be easier to carry. Wouldn't eat and drink as much, either. Did I mention that we lost most of our supplies during our flight from the Nothing? Yeah, that's also a thing. I'm pretty sure it crushed our remaining packs. I have mine, but...

I've given up on suicide. Living to die is bullshit. I won't travel that road again. But at this rate, how the hell are we supposed to survive? Maybe I can take after fucking desert beetles and eat only one thing... sand is gonna start looking real tasty in a day or two...

Dragomir