Day 22

I made my goodbyes this morning and headed out again. I've spent the past few days helping out by hunting up any food I could, while most of the townsfolk tended to their injuries and fortified their new home. They're still debating whether to stay in the underground tunnels or to come up and try to rebuild nearby. Personally, I'm thinking they should just fortify where they are. The old Fest Town was a bit of luck, cobbled together from the remains of buildings that were already there, fortified with scrap metals. Finding enough scrap to build a whole town again'll be difficult. They have secure walls and a ceiling already, plus its harder to set fire to and more defensible if their attackers come back. They can easily farm outside and nearby, it's not like they'll be closed up in there. We even found a generator, Armstrong said he's going to try to get it working, even if fuel is kind of at a premium.

I'm making my way northward. Tracks from the guys that attacked the town look like they came from that way. Last I heard, there should be the remains of an old highway around here somewhere, I'm hoping I can find it and parallel it. I don't want to walk directly on it, it'd leave me too exposed, but walking just close enough to keep an eye on it should let me see anyone else trying to travel the easier route.

The attack on the town is still fresh in my mind. It makes me wonder what happened to humanity. I mean, were people always like this? We've got bands of raiders roaming around, taking anything they want and killing or enslaving anyone who tries to stop them. People trying to eke out whatever crops they can get from this wasted soil. Groups like this New Church promising peace and love while they kill those who don't join right up. I haven't seen anything like it in the books I've managed to find, but I have to wonder if I just didn't find the right books, or if I missed something or glossed over it. I mean, maybe it was worse before, and that's why the world ended? I've met one Dyer who claimed he was alive when the Cataclysm happened. He talked about bombs blowing, and everything turning to shit after. But, I mean, the guy was a research guy, a scientist, totally dedicated to his lab. Still is, really. Maybe there was something else, he just didn't see it all. Were the bombs from an error, or an attack, or just a side effect of something else going on? Or was everything better before, the Cataclysm just let people be more of who they are on the inside?

I know I don't have any answers. I'm not a philosopher, or a head doctor, or anything like that. And something tells me I'll have to find a lot more books and maybe some audio recordings too, before I know what led to the Cataclysm. And honestly, I'll probably never figure it out. But it does make me a little...I dunno, not sad just...fatalistic, I guess, about humanity's future.

I've never really worried about good versus evil, or morality, or anything like that. Just never been that introspective. All I think I can really do is what I've been doing, for the same reasons I've doing them. Part of it is enjoying helping others, yeah. But its just a small part. The bigger part is...when you help someone out, you save them, you drive off the bad things...they open their arms to you, and their hearts. They make you feel welcome, and one of them. That's the part I like.