Day Four-Ninety-Three: Stern disapproval

Yeah, I know. I said no less than two, maybe three weeks ago, that Grayson should remain contained. Even… at the expense of my wife. At least until I found a way to harmlessly separate him from her.

But I was stupid. We can't really do this without Grayson. He saved us last time, by, uh, 'infecting' everybody in Pubton with his power. Our fledgling community instantly turned into a bunch of super warriors. Pubton has grown since then, so imagine what a bigger army could do.

… or, you know, Grayson might just reappear as a super-powered werewolf. Hopefully with a taste for Non. Regardless, we're better off facing one foe than however many Non are out there.

…

I don't know. This is all a horrible idea. But sieges tend to change your perspective on life once they're underway. Even if they're not hammering you that hard. They may not have killed anyone yet, may only have wounded and lightly maimed, but the Non pressing in on us are frightening as hell. Those ebon faces, looming up over the walls, leering and smiling and destroying… ugh.

These Non are, as far as we can tell, all of the Omega Corps variety. In my experiences with the Non, I've seen a few different kinds. There are the human-sized kind (The Baron, I guess, falls into this category - I think he's a Non?); the flying kind (the thing that knocked Barrel out of the sky and nearly got Pagan and I killed); the tiny kind (Kierkegaard and Doc, and probably some of the smaller eyes I saw in Pagan's manor); aaaaand the big, hulking, brutish kind. Blue falls into this category, as do the Omega Corpsers that I've seen.

The Non could soar over the walls and drop troops on us. Or knock holes and send in their small guys to infiltrate us. Yet they haven't done much more so far than bash at the walls. So, yeah, stalling tactics for sure. They wanna terrify Pubton's residents, not kill 'em. That, I figure, comes later.

Which brings us back to the current problem: getting out of Pubton. The Non have corralled us in here, and I don't know how they'll react if anybody tries to leave the town. Brock looked ready to eat me the other day. I bet he and his kin (assuming Brock's still alive, of course - Daena DID blow off his head) would have no problem supping on anybody they found beyond the walls.

Going up and over is not an option. Going through the front gates, which have been badly damaged, is not an option. The only recourse I can come up with, then… is down. Down and out.

I long ago made a point of exploring the rat warrens beneath Pubton, before I had my last falling out with the little bastards. All of the tunnels leading into the warrens have entry points on the edge of town, all of them now either covered by buildings or located outside the wall. Theoretically, I can use one of them to escape undetected… only I don't know how I'd remain unseen beyond the wall.

Also? We don't have a way down into the warrens anymore. Like I said, entrances are outside. I don't want to let the Non know that these holes exist until it's too late.

Though he thinks my idea of fleeing Pubton is utterly retarded, Pagan believes that having access to the warrens - if only to defend them - is wise. Consequently, he came up with an excellent solution: we dig. More, though, we dig in absolute secrecy.

Pagan has a lot of tents. He loved using tents on his military campaigns. He also liked multi-room tents, and this morning he ordered his slaves to set up a 'command post' of tents near the golden tree. This is where the troops are all supposed to report in on the activities of the Non…

… and it's also, secretly, where a team of labourers is digging through the ground, into the warrens. We hope to have a hole finished by early tomorrow. (We'd move more quickly, but big teams of labourers moving in and out of the 'command post' would probably raise suspicion, you know?)

I'll have my way out. But I still don't know how I'll get past the Non once I'm beyond the walls. For all I know there are hundreds of them hunkered in the forest, anxious to crunch anything they find creeping through the redwoods.

Shit. I've got some thinking to do.

Sincerely,

Dragomir the Co-Mayor