NaNoWriMo '08 - Day One

Day One:

Dear Journal,

Actually, that sounds kinda girly. The other squad leaders said we should keep a journal about our day’s feats and accomplishments and whatever other crap we end up going through for who-knows what anymore. But… I don’t know. “Dear Journal” is just… ehhhh. I think I’ll call it… Beatrice.

Let me start over.

Dear Beatrice,

… No. No, it’s still not working for me.

Beatrice,

Today really sucked!

I’m still not quite getting what I want out of this. But whatever, I guess I’ll figure it out the more I write in this (if I ever remember to).

Dear Beatrice,

Allison Hawkins died today.

Billy looked up from the leather-bound journal one of the other squad leaders had given to him the other day. He could have sworn somebody had called his name. The three other teammates that made up Squad F were sitting about a small campfire, looking dejected and forlorn. They had all set off bearing in mind that not everybody was going to make it through to the end, but the death of Allison was hard to take. Everyone was lost in their own little world. None of them could have called his name, Billy decided, and returned to writing in his journal.

Allison Hawkins died today. We (Squad F) were supposed to patrol the perimeter of Arginton’s Bay. All was well, but as we were making our way back to the rendezvous point, Hector said he saw a zombie, Class 1, heading right for us. It should have been an easy picking of the lone zombie. I mean, Class 1 zombies don’t move very fast in the first place, but this one… it only had one leg. The stupid thing was actually hopping at us. Is it wrong that the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the thing was IHOP? I guess we’ll never know, seeing how you can’t even answer me, Beatrice. In fact, you know what, this whole journal business is stupid. I quit. I’ve got better things to do.

Billy stood up to toss the book into the fire, when someone standing behind him snatched it out of harm’s way. The petite woman gave Billy a severe look.
“Billy Art, you weren’t thinking about putting this poor journal into that fire, were you? Especially not after I painstakingly bound it together for you?” Pim Darling said. Billy felt himself blush, and suddenly began coughing quite violently to cover the fact. Real men didn’t blush!
“Noooooooo,” he drawled out the vowel as he searched his brain for a believable excuse Pim might not bother questioning. It always turned into mush whenever she was near. “I… I just needed better light to read by, that’s all.”
Pim didn’t say anything. Billy silently congratulated himself on having come up with such a fantastic excuse, and was too distracted to really notice as she began to look through his journal entries. She raised an eyebrow.
“ ‘Beatrice?’ Really, Billy, that was the best you could do?” she teased, snapping Billy out of his own thoughts.
“What? HEY! Give that back! Who said you could read that?” he exclaimed, and began reaching for it, but the smaller woman ducked easily under his clumsy grasp, never for a moment tearing her eyes away from the single page Billy had managed to write.
“Billy,” she said, closing the journal and holding it against her chest, “it’s very important we all keep a journal log of our expeditions. It’s dangerous out here, and our notes could prove very helpful some day. I would suggest you actually list out the members of your squad, give Allison the respect she deserves, and start taking this much more seriously.”
She then shoved the journal into Billy’s hands and stormed off, her lips pursed in that cute way that Billy had finally learned meant she was pissed.
Billy looked at the remaining members of his squad. They were glaring at him.
“What?” he shot at them before trudging back to his seat to continue writing.

Hello again, Beatrice.

I guess I’m not quitting this journal business after all. You could say I’ve had a change of heart. Or something. Whatever.

Anyway, here’s the list of the current members of Squad F:

Billy Art, squad leader (that’s me!)
Porcia Hunt
Hector Bean
Satchel
Allison Hawkins (deceased)

Billy was about to leave it at that, then decided he wanted to impress Pim Darling by writing the members of all the squads out patrolling the wastelands this month.

Here are the other squads, too, in case you were wondering, Beatrice:

Squad A
Ace, squad leader (a real douchebag)
Delilah Morgan
Morgan Velmont (I can never remember which is which, so I just call them both ‘Morgan’)
Simon Olstad
Brad Shaw

Squad B
Briella Farth, squad leader (she looks like a man)
Exavier Dunce (heh heh… nice last name, moron)
Jennifer Bunker
Bailey Smitherton
Kerry Johnson

Squad C
Pim Darling, squad leader
Rori Johnson
Caleb McMick (seriously?)
Jayme Norton
Harry Grad

Squad D
Oscar Pelvincht, squad leader (always looks like he’s got a stick up his bum)
Adrian Park
Phillipa Rochaards
Roland D. Price (heh heh, his middle initial is the same letter as his squad)
Gerald Fitzgerald Jerald (I want to hit him most of the time)

Squad E
James McFerlund, squad leader (he let me borrow a stick of gum. I tried to give it back to him when I was done chewing it, but he suddenly didn’t want it anymore. Weirdo…)
Luna Sera Hewlett (blonde, blonde, and bloooooonde)
Vincent Hamelton (ate a frog for breakfast once. Ew.)
Kelly Wormund
(shoot, I forgot the last one… uhhh… if I remember, I’ll write it down later)

Oh yeah, Allison Hawkins – she died on the field today. When the Class 1 zombie was after us. I think she meant to get back farther so she could have more time to get a better shot at him, but then she… well… she stepped on an armed mine.

Yeah… that was a lot of fun, I tell you what.

Anyway, Beatrice, I’m getting tired. Gotta get my rest so we can continue our adventurin’ tomorrow!

Love,
Billy Art

No…

Signed,
Billy Art

God damn, I hate writing in journals!

Sincerely,
Billy Ar-

That’s just stupid.

Until next time.