Day 18c

Like I said, it's been a busy few days. Right now, most of the survivors are living in the labyrinthine depths that I had recently swept the Fallen out of. Andrew's rejoined us, the Mutate herbalist. He saw the smoke on the horizon, and came back to investigate. His herbs have helped a lot, and Cailin's been following him around like a puppy ever since he helped her mother. She's even been trying to talk her mother into them going with him when he leaves, so that she can learn from him. It's a hard sell to her mother, and even more so to Andrew himself. Cailin herself just seems to view it as a done deal, and I've got to give her points for tenaciousness. Others of the survivors have left, saying they'll find some other town or something but that they couldn't stay here. They were given a fair share of the leftover supplies, and all the best wishes anyone could muster. They'll carry word of what happened here.

Once we made our way here, we first made another sweep of the place, making sure nothing else dangerous was here hiding. That done, we secured the place the best we could, and then those of us who were able to made our way back to town to scavenge what we could. There's not much, but it'll give everybody food enough to last a few days, and there were still some blankets down in the shelter. I'm going to stick around for a while, and I'm going to hunt and explore and make sure everyone's as all right as they can be. And then I'm going to find the bastards behind this, and make them pay.

See, we had left the bodies of the gunmen laying where they died. I found where I had knocked out that one, but I had forgotten about him and he apparently recovered enough to leave. I only hope that he didn't see where everyone went. I searched the other bodies, though, trying to figure out who they were, why they had done this. Of course, I also took their guns, the townsfolk can use them. They weren't dressed like raiders: no armor bits, no garish colors or accessories to frighten their victims. They looked like regular guys. But in one of their pockets, I found a small notebook. Opening it, I found bits of paper similar to what had been in the book carried by that Brother Francis. This wasn't as big, wasn't as full, but it was obviously another copy of the Word. There wasn't much to it, but what I saw chilled me. Things about stoning women, dashing children against stones, fighting unbelievers. At the end, there were even some sort of cartoon pages about various things, obviously just individual parts of a whole, including one of a member of some competing group being thrown into fire.

Whoever and wherever this New Church is, they seem bent on making sure that their Word is the only word, the only way, and the only law. They're enforcing it with pain, death, and fear, and seem to be taking their Word from only disjointed bits and pieces of other things.

Almost all of Fest Town has been wiped out, the town itself burnt to ashes and scrap metal, its people scattered and injured. That sanctuary against a harsh world is gone. Max is dead, a good man dedicated to protecting and providing for his friends. And Jennifer is dead, I found her body inside the house that had been given to me. I-...I don't know how much I cared for her, but I did care. She was a sweet girl, and she was comforting to wake up to. No one deserved this, least of all for simply not agreeing to follow someone else's way of life. Someone is going to answer for this.