If you come across any hostile humans, I’ve found it’s really kind of awesome to use the rotters against them.  I mean, why should I risk losing a weapon or, y’know, getting gnawed on, when I can just make some noise (blow up a barrel or something) and draw ever viral in the vicinity to where the assholes are?

Okay, so you’ve heard me talk about Volatiles, and if you’re unlucky enough or dumb enough, you’ve seen one or two yourself.  Well, this is important: You can hide from Volatiles in the water!  It always works!  I’m serious, dive below the surface and wait a few seconds, and they just wander off!  Guess their senses aren’t strong enough to find you underwater?  Or maybe they just have REALLY short attention spans.  I don’t care, I just know it works.  I also know I need to do more cardio, because my lung capacity is terrible.

Oh my GOD, you won’t believe what I saw today!  These hazmat-looking weirdos with big ass-gas tanks strapped to their backs!  Check it out, when you damage the tank, it’ll start spraying everywhere- it can even lift the guy wearing it off the freaking ground -and then the tank explodes!  Why? I have no idea.  I mean, seriously, what’s in that tank?  It doesn’t matter.  What matters is that it’ll clear whole areas fast if you do it right. 

So here’s a pleasant little surprise!  I got some batteries and rigged myself up an electrified weapon.  With me so far?  Okay, well, so, I hit a rotter with it, except- this is the good part -it was RAINING.  And all of a sudden arcs of electricity just start flying out of the guy, seriously, like miniature bolts of lightning, and guess what?  THEY STRUCK HIS FRIENDS, TOO!  How sweet is that??  I might have peed a little.  It was hard to tell, since I was already soaking wet.  Hmmm...wonder how else I could boost my DIY weapons...

One thing I’ve noticed for sure:  you need to dodge when you’re fighting the rotters.  Like, a lot.  Especially if you come up against one of the big guys.  Remember to stay on the move, don’t rely on brute force, and if you’re lucky you’ll survive.  If you just stand there swinging your weapon, however, you’ll get overrun.  (Dodging makes really good use of my not-overly-developed physique.  I bet those guys on the football team couldn’t even a bunch of rotters!  Nope, they’d be lunch.  And I might be laughing.  Just a little.)

If you’re reading this, I might be dead.  I hope I’m not, of course, but I have to tell you, things don’t look too rosy in good ol’ Harran these days.  Especially for a scrawny bookish type like Yours Truly.  I got all excited when the letter came, telling I’d received a fellowship to the university.  Now?  Not so excited.  All I wanted to do was get my degree and finish my latest novel.  And writing is not just a hobby, MOM.  It’s what I’m going to do for the rest of my life!  I don’t think self-publishing nineteen science-fiction novels in two years is something you do if you’re not serious!   ...Anyway.  I’m sort of figuring out how to survive here, and as I do, I’ll record it all on these pages.  

So if you’re finding this stuff, and I’m not around, well... I hope you have better luck than I did. 

"Arcade Marvelous" (Part 3)

--"Spider Machine" wanted to be something different. Not a machine that is designed the way it currently is. Did not want me to play it as it was tired of the reactions people had with it. 

--"Surprise Curtain" game wanted to play peek a boo. This game featured the concept where one puts a quarter in and all that happens is a curtain opens to reveal a spinning creature. I told it about the idea of Foxy from Fnaf and they loved the idea of him. Even asked me to see him. So I pulled my phone out and showed it a picture. They energetically poked his nose and squealed. I asked the game if they wanted to play peek a boo with a larger audience. Wanting to experiment, I decided to test videoing them once I put a quarter in. The game got immediately upset and said the people had to pay for that. I immediately deleted the video. They asked me to put in another quarter as an apology. I did so. When I asked if they wanted anything else, they side eyed me and asked for more quarters. This felt out of greed, not an apology so I declined. They got fussy. I thanked them for their time and left.

--Ski ball machine second from left did not want to be played because it was irritated to be next to the other ski ball machines. 

--Left most machine asked me to play as compensation for the rude behavior of his “brother”. He encouraged soortsmanship and hyped me up to get a high score. They realized I wasn’t very good and still tried to be supportive. Enjoyed the experience and was happy to help me against his brother’s meanness. 

--"Big Bass Wheel" wanted to go faster. I couldn't really do that physically, but I still wanted to help. So I tried to give him symbols in an experimental way to see if It would make him FEEL faster while spinning. Didn’t work. Big Bass didn’t mind and even encouraged me to keep going after I was done, saying maybe I could practice differently on other machines. 

--"Pirate Monster Island" felt “fishy” as soon as I tuned in. Felt like something was scammy about it. Couldn’t tell at first if this was from an energetic impression of someone playing it, or someone who built it. Finally settled on the display screen as being the part that felt scammy. Tried to dig under it to get to the machine itself. Once I did, the machine quickly grabbed my hand and pulled it toward the screen. It clearly wanted that scammy feeling gone. Felt like whoever built the display screen part, had negative intentions of greed rather than having fun with an arcade game. Energy felt clear once the machine “sighed”, then went right into “play me!” Mode. Scammy feeling was gone. Played the game afterwards, the game was a total ripoff. Barely played it and it wasn’t even that fun due to how nearly impossible it was. The poor machine wanted to be played with, but had been built with a shitty game inside. There was nothing I could do.