Gustav's Journal
Day 1: Woke up today. Met the survivors of team RTH, and a contemporary scavengerer/tinkerer; Stillson, Rutherford, and Managan are dead, killed by a cave-in. You'd think bunkers designed to outlast Armaggedon would last. Met my first contemporary tribe: the Rising Sun tribe, led by Zeke. They cover themselves with kanji, ascribed meaning by the tribe; they have no understanding of where the symbols come from, though. Pi started the tribe on the "Parables of MacGuyver." He's not a bad example for them.
Everyone here still speaks English. How boring.
Day 2: We arrived at the Solstice celebration of the Wobblers - some kind of religious sect - early in the morning. After rest, we began meeting and assessing the locals. We have plenty of high-value trade goods from our stores, so trading to other tribes' advantages will help make us liked. Pi and I began work on a modern socio-political map of the region based on information gathered from the gathered tribes, who are all eager enough to trade with us that they come to us.
Late in the evening, Kent and Cybil Ryerson approached and asked us to look for their son, whom they believed to be in the local Wobbler sacred forest. We met with the Wobbler seer Phil, who permitted Pi and Charlotte to enter the forest and face the trials of the Divinity, whatever that is. It didn't go well. He permitted the rest of us to go in to retrieve Charlotte, and we found some biologically-impossible man-things in there; as they were psychotically violent, Marcus, Pi, and a recovering Charlotte shot them to pieces. Ford found Mikey Ryerson nearby, and we left quickly. Pi had an urge to continue; I convinced her to return later if that was her desire.
Phil was happy we were alive, and the Ryersons were grateful. We still have work to do in assessing the local tribes and what we might do to refound society here, or across the states. If there are states. And the Wobbler's shaking earth phenomenon, and the strange effects in the forest and the monstrous creatures there are distressing. I hope impossible things aren't commonplace here.
