October 12, 2023

81 days into the apocalypse.

I won't say that I'm fine, but I am alive, which is a miracle in itself considering what my friends and I went through during the past few days. How far humanity can degrade in times like this is honestly surprising.

We were captured. But this time not by some cannibal couple or some crime boss. This time, it was a cult. Yup, a cult.

They called themselves 'Thessalonians'. They followed one leader, whom they called 'The father'. This cult was formed of these mental freaks, that were doctorined into the teaching of this Father.

They believed that this Spread is actually rapture, and the god is calling to the dead and reaping his followers. They worshiped the Plagued as if those monsters were some sort of angels. Though they mostly avoided the Plagued out in the streets, they had some of those monsters held in cages in their base, and practically worshipped them each day. And it's not like they're some small group. This cult was huge. Probably near a hundred men and women were part of this cult.

About their base, with their large numbers, these freaks had managed to take over about 3 blocks worth of area. The buildings were renovated to accommodate their needs, with roof top farms and backyard gardens, prison cells, patrolling and guarding routes, and of course their ritual grounds.

Nobody in this cult have a name, or at least they don't anymore. Even their leader's name is unknown. These people, they're no better than Billy, or the Sedgwig couple. They'd intercept passing survivors and capture them. If the survivors joined them, then good, if not the person will be sacrificed to the 'Liberators', as the called the Plagued, in their rituals.

These freaks had their bodies littered with cuts and burn scars. Their heads were shaven and everyone had a necklace with a wooden cross hanging around their necks.

Despite looking like crazy psychos, these people weren't too dim. They had a full social system established. Guards patrolling around, workers working in the farms or attending other chores, etc.

We were caught by them after getting out of Staten Island. We had spent a couple days, managing to salvage some gasoline that would have been enough for us to drive out of the final borough of New York and potentially get us to Atlantic city, since its just a days drive from Staten Island to get there.

We had come across one of them while driving. We didn't knew about them back then, so we stopped the car and hesitantly approached that guy. Despite all that had happened in the past couple months, there was still a bit of humanity lingering in me and I had convinced James and Natalie to help that guy, believing it was just a regular survivor.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Soon we were surrounded by more of these freaks. We gave a fight, James and Natalie had shot down some of them, and I managed to land a shot or two too, but it wasn't enough. At last we had to surrender.

We were taken captive, and put in cell along with some other survivors that were caught before us. The cells were made by collapsing a few walls of a building to make a larger room and then sealing off a side with rebars.

For past few days, we were subjected to the life they forced on us. The cultists would drag survivors to other rooms, where the would be conditioned to follow their ways. If they didn't, even after days of conditioning, they'd be sacrificed in the rituals, where everyone would be present to see the Plagued tearing apart the person. Even we prisoners were forced to watch all that.

I and my friends were also put through this conditioning. We would be taken to some room where they would first read out 'the texts of the father', which is almost like a twisted version of bible, and try to convince us to follow their ways. If it didn't work, they'd go forward to cleanse us, which meant torturing us.

I had received a big burn on my arm and one in the back and a few cuts on my side as part of the conditioning. Natalie had one cut on her right cheek, near her jaw and a burn on her right bicep. James had the worst, receiving several whiplashes on his back.

We were on dispare on how could we get away from here, from these beasts. No escape was to be seen. That's until a miracle happened yesterday.

They had taken us for our second session of conditioning. After once again reading the texts and beating me up a bit, the thessalonian attending me had left the room and left me tied to a chair. Sometime later, someone had entered the room. But it wasn't the guy attending me. It was a boy. He was robably 13 years old. His arms were riddled with scars and his head was shaven. A knife was held in his small hands.

I was unsure of what he was about to do, when surprisingly, he cut my binds with that knife. I gasped when I was finally free of my binds and stood up, rubbing my arms a bit before staring down at the boy. He looked so thin and frail, and scared.

He shakily handed me over the knife and told me he would help me find my friends and help us get out of here, only if I vow to take him with us to the safe place.

Apparently, the boy was once a survivor traveling with his father, but they were caught by this cult. The father was sacrificed in the rituals, and they boy had joined the cult in order to save himself from the same fate.

I felt sorry for him, and vowed that I'd take him with me once we get out.

He led me out of the room and into the hallways, before taking me to some other room. Some feminine screams were coming from that room, along with maniacal cackling. I quietly opened the door, and my eyes widened when I found Natalie being tortured by a thessalonian. That bastard was prodding her with an electrical wire on her stomach, while cackling madly as she screamed in pain.

I felt my blood boil, and as quietly as I could, I sneaked up behind him before stabbing the knife in his neck. His cackling had stopped as blood sprayed out from the wound. I dragged him down on the floor, and pulled the knife out and stabbed him a few more times, ensuring he was dead and couldn't call for help.

Once his body had turned lifeless, I staggered back and sat down on the floor. I had just killed a man. Sure I had killed Plagued before, but those were walking corpses. This one was a human. A walking breathing human, whom I had just killed. But there wasn't time to dwell on those thoughts.

I quickly scrambled back up on my feet and freed Natalie from her bindings. She had sprung up and hugged me once she was free. Man, did I feel my heart beating fast when I felt her wrapping her arms around me. But before the moment could last long, my little helper stepped inside the room. Natalie had pulled away immediately and stared down at the boy with a frown.

I remember telling her,"Relax, he's on our side."

She was unsure, but decided to trust me, as the boy led us to another room, where I found James being water boarded by two cultists. We made quick work of them, with me stabbing one from behind while the other was attacked by Natalie. Once done with them, we freed James, and boy was he happy to see us.

We quickly informed him about the situation, and then followed the kid out of the building. The kid guided us through the building and out on the roads, as we did our best to avoid the patrolling guards. The kid led us to a parking lot like area where the cultists kept the cars they had salvaged. Apparently, these vehicles were in usable condition and filled with enough fuel to get out of here.

We approached a van, when suddenly, we were caught by a group of guards. They barked slangs at us and made us get on our knees at gunpoint. They were especially furious with the kid, since he had helped us out. Two of them even dragged the boy in front of us, began hitting and kicking him. The kid sobbed and begged for mercy while the rest laughed.

Just then something snapped in me. My blood had begun boiling again, and I lashed out at the guard closest to me, lunging at him and tackling him on the ground as I pulled out my knife and stabbed him in the neck. The other guards were probably startled and shocked with my sudden attack, because next thing I knew, James and Natalie had also sprang up in action.

There were 5 guards in total who had caught us, and we all made quick work of the three that were laughing while the other two beat up the kid. I and Natalie had made quick work of the three, while James had taken on the two assaulting the boy, beating them up in a bloody pulp and smashing their heads against one of the cars. I had never seen James so angry before.

Natalie had gone over to check on the kid, while I and James sized up the weapons the guards had with them. Most of them only had machetes and knives on them, with only two having rifles. One M14 rifle, which turned out to be the same one Natalie used, and a .308 bolt action rifle with a scope attached to it, that James gladly took. As for me, I took one of their Machetes with the sheath, and I still had the knife the kid gave me.

Natalie and James offered me their guns, but I refused. They were better shot than me, and could make better use of the weapons than me. We salvaged whatever we could from the guards. Some ammo, some dried snacks and first aid medicine they had on them before we broke into a van that was in the parking lot.

The alarm systems in the van had gone off, but I had managed to hotwire the van and start the engine, all the experience in the garage was finally coming handy, and we drove off. There was some resistance on the way while the boy tried to help us as best as he can to navigate out of the area.

Some guards who got alert and shot at us, but it did little to stop us. Soon, we were out of the area, and I drove wildly trying to get away from there.

Currently, we've found a hiding place, and we took shelter here. We're trying to recover from the injuries we had suffered at the hands of the cult, and we don't know where we are exactly at the present moment. We'd be heading out again tomorrow, because with how the situation has gotten, we'd need to keep moving if we want to make it.

I just pray that we all can make it out of all this alive.