A Hunter's Journal

This Is Far Too Real

Thu, 18 Mar 2004 18:39:00 GMT

I half-expected to wake up this morning and find that yesterday's events were all a dream. But this wasn't so. The reality of the horror was confirmed when I pulled up to work this morning. Police tape was all around the station. The window was still smashed out from when the creature was thrown through it and I could still see the burn mark on the ground from when I threw a lighter at it. Bill, my shift manager was there. He must have seen the disbelieving look on my face. He told me to go out with some friends and have a good time. I wish I did have friends to fall back on, but I do not. So I did the next best thing. I decided to read.
After a drive down the road the zombie escaped down turned up nothing, I decided to try and do some reasearch. Yes, I am calling this walking dead creature a 'zombie' now, for lack of a better term. It is probably an ignorant and inappropriate label, but I can think of no common way to name what we encountered. At the library, I checked out books called: "The Zombie Survival Guide" and "Dawn Of The Dead". And, because it was in the same section and on a whim, I picked up one called "The Vampire Lestat" as well. In a search to answer the question of how I was able to use the Future Sight, I checked out: "Awakening Your Psychic Powers", "The Psychic In You", and "Get Psychic!" as well. Armed with what I thought would give me the answers I sought, I headed home to read. It appears that, while these books are full of all kinds of information and stories, none of it seemed to fit what I saw and heard. For example, in all of these books, zombies walk around mindlessly in search of human brains to eat. The one in the store actually spoke, although when he did so, it seemed like he was forcing the breath through his body to make sound. Also, the psychic books were of no help. Some of them discussed "future premonitions" but nothing like what I did.
After that dissapointment, I decided to try and call Samantha. I had to find out what the others had seen and experienced and wanted to set up a meeting. Samantha, though hesitant at first, was willing to let us all meet at her house that afternoon. I called Jon and asked him to come. I had tried to talk to him last night about what happened, but he seemed resolute on not speaking about it. I held hope that he would be more open at our meeting, especialy when he offered to contact the injured man who had seen the zombie as well. I arrived first and sat talking with Samantha about pleasantries and then eventually the events of the previous day. Next to arrive was Josh and his friend John. Josh was the man who's neck was broken by the zombie, though miraculously, he now appeared to be completely healed. His friend John had been in the car at the time of the incident and saw the zombie for what it was, as well. Last to arrived was Jon, the big man who first attacked the zombie and turned out to be a firefighter. I had hoped to have a calm, civi, discussion and perhaps some theorizing on the nature of the zombie and of our newfound abilities. However, Jon was till hostile to this idea for some reason and left. It was then that Josh told Samantha and I about what he had seen while in the hosptial. Evidently a ghost or spirit of some kind had visited him and actually stuck its hand right though Josh's neck! Incredible! Well, this changed everything. I realized that what had happened yesterday was not some fluke one-time thing, but that we were now able to see things that others could not on an extended basis. Josh, Samantha, and I talked for a while longer on the possibility of ghosts and spirits living amongst us and eventually agreed to go together down to St. Augustine this weekend. There are many rumors of hauntings in that old town and I, personally, am very excited to see if they are true. I hope this ability to see these things holds out.

(Later)

I am near exhaustion right now. Half of me wants to rush out my door and see as many of these "supernatural" things as I can and the other half insists that it would be much safer just to stay at home and never come out. All of me wants to smack Jon in the face and probably would, if not for his condition.
Let me explain. After our meeting at Samanthas, I went to the store to try and see or possible get a hold of the surveillence tapes. Bill surprisingly let me see them and to my utter shock, I found that the entire time the zombie was within the store, there was no picture or sound on the video. However, it picked right back up again at the moment the zombie ran away. This was severley distrubing, to say the least. The only theory I can fathom is that these things are able to control or manipulate electrical equipment! This theory was only reinfoced later in the day. To my continued surprise, Jon called me. He sounded very upset and said he needed to meet me and the others and that something needed to be taken care of. It turns out that the "something" was his wife's employer "looking wrong." Reluctantly, we all got together and rode with Jon to the office building. His brashness and unwillingness to reason before acting was really starting to worry me. Especialy when he pressed his gun into my hand and insisted I carry it. I was able to observe the "man" with a different kind of sight from the Futrue Sight. I had accidently used it on the zombie as well. It showed the creature for what it was and let me discern that it was vulnerable to fire. I think I shall call this sight the True Sight. The True Sight revealed the man to be "wrong" indeed. He was forcing himself to breathe and moved in a very controled and inorganic way. Much like a manaquein suddenley brought to life.
From there, things did not go well at all. When we were in the parking lot, Jon and Josh broke out into violence with the man and Jon was severely injured. Thankfully, Samantha and I were able to drag Jon away and made an excuse of drunkeness. The only good things that came of the little excersion was that I witnessed Jon display the same accelerated healing that Josh used to recover from his broken neck so quickly. I'm wondering if I might have the same propensity for healing and if I should try a test....
I am so tired right now that I cannot write any more. I will conduct more reasearch and try to contact the others again tommorow. Also, I have somehow been assigned the task of observing the "wrong" man. I actually look forward to it and possibly cataloguing any more strange things I can find out about him.

This Can't Be Real

Thu, 18 Mar 2004 04:19:44 GMT

I suppose I am starting this journal so I can keep everything in perspective. I think if I can write everything down, I can get a better perspective on it.
No. That is wrong. I am starting this journal to attempt to prove to myself that I'm not insane. Because the more I think about what I have just heard, seen, and done; the more it seems like I belong in an asylum.

I will start off with the beginning of the day, before my world was turned upsidedown. I got up this morning much like I always do. I find it funny now, when I realize how average the day started. I ate my cereal and watched the news, amazed at always how desensitized America is to all the terrible thing that happen within her borders. After this, I traveled to my workplace at the gas station and started my shift with Jeanne. I got her to try curry chicken and she liked it. I offered to make her some other Indian dishes for dinner sometime, but I don't think she got the point because she asked me to bring it into work with me. I wish I had just gotten up the courage to ask her on a date. Maybe tonight would have been easier to handle.

So after that is when the average ended and the bizzare began. A boy I had not seen in the store before had just tried to shoplift some sweets. I yelled at him and he put them back and left. I was taking payment from another customer who was buying beer, when the screaming started. I have always hated having disruptions around my store so I went out to see what was going on. I can't believe what I am about to write next. I suddenley heard a voice loudly and clearly, though no one in the store could have been speaking it. It was the voice of my philosophy professor back in Bombay. He said "Observe and interfeer" or something like that. I was so surprised to suddenley hear this that I almost didn't register what it said. This is one of the reasons I think I might have lost my mind. I have heard stories about people suddenley hearing voices in their head. However, what happened next must mean I am dellusional as well. The shoplifting boy was being chased by what I can only describe as a walking corpse. This man...no, this thing stunk so bad of shit that I nearly vomited right there outside the store. The boy ran past me into the store and the dead thing followed, not giving me a second glance. I think I muttered something to it, but I can't remember now. The dead thing chased the boy all the way to the back before the other man interfered. I soon found out that I was not the only one who saw this walking corpse. A very large man who had been standing in line, lunged at the thing and tried to get him off the boy. This appeared to make the thing more angry than anything else.

Now that violence had broken out in my store and I appeared to be the only employee there, I started to wonder what I could do to stop this situation. And that is when, what I think I am calling the "Future Sight" first came. I focused so intently on the possible outcomes of my actions, that for a moment, I literally saw them in front of my eyes. It was like suddenley being thrown into a dream, only much more real. I saw one situation where I stood where I was and did nothing and everyone, including Jeanne was on the floor dead. Then I saw another scenario in which I took up the store's shotgun and things were OK. As the Sight ended, I went with my instincts and picked up the shotgun from behind the counter. I tried to warn the thing to get out of the store, but it seemed casual or even nonchalant about the fact that I had a loaded weapon in my hands. It came up to me and tried to grab the shotgun. I pulled the trigger and managed to severley wound its rotting hand, but that didn't even slow it down. Thankfully, that's when the others came in and helped. A woman about my age, who was outside actually grabbed a bottle of drain-cleaner and tried to hurt the dead thing with it and the man buying beer smashed one of the bottles and started jabbing the thing in the head. After the thing tried to take the man with the beer hostage and ended up breaking the poor boy's neck, the large man who attacked first somehow forced the dead thing outside without even touching it and after more of a struggle and another use of the Future Sight on my part, it ran away.

The police arrived not long after. I lied of course, but my mind was buzzing with questions. What was that thing? How come only several people in and around the store saw it? How was I suddenley able to see into the near future?? What is going on?? As I sit here writing this, I still don't have any answers to these questions. My only proof that I am not crazy is the other people who experienced what I did. I was able to get the big man and draino-weilding woman's phone numbers. Turns out their names are John and Samantha. I didn't find anything out the boy who's neck was broken before they loaded him into the ambulence. I'm going to do some reasearch tommorow and try to contact the people at the store. Perhaps if we talk about this together, we might be able to figure out just what happened. Whatever it was, I know that I will never take another "average" day for granted.