Survival Guide(As Written by Luke Alvarez)

There are some things that me and my crew have learned during our long stay here in the Pit. It's been more years than I'd care count without a calendar, and some pretty twisted things can happen here. Some pretty amazing ones, too. You just have to know what to look for.

I'm passing on these journals and accounts to the next generations in hopes they won't do near as many stupid things as we did, back when we were first thrown in here. There are some harsh lessons to be learned, especially considering that out of fifty less than ten of us are left standing. Here's to hoping you can read this and won't have to learn the hard way.

The more of us survive, the more of us there will be to look out for each other, and the more of us working together, the more of a chance we have of getting out one day.

Good Luck, y'all. You're gonna' more than need it.

~Luce

The beginning is always the rough part. They hadn't given us all enough time to heal, and a majority of us had potent things done onto us.

First thing I did was lose it something awful. That ended in a ten-foot circle of blackened ground and the attention of people and Toothdogs alike.

There's no way to help it. Coming in here we're all gonna lose our minds at some point or another, and not just once. If you know that much you can at least manage it, except for when you're first dropped. That's over and done and there's nothing to be done about it.

Getting used to what's been done to you is a damn sight hard, too. Some are luckier than others, some are downright spoiled and some are completely handicapped. Sometimes the handicap is balanced out though.

My first partner was an old man, they'd done something to his eyes. He was blind, but he could stab the hell out of you with thought alone. He could hold his own, but the first week of bad weather's what done him in. Infection from poor surgery. I'll tell you about medical stuff more later, though.


Now, coping with the memory problems they set on you might be the most hard. Don't get too wrapped up in it. Falling to pieces may seem a good idea but your life ain't the only life resting on your shoulders. Sometimes a bit of it will return, sometimes it won't, and you just have to take it in stride. Whatever was lost we have time in front of us. Never forget that.

Speaking of first coming in, I guess I'll have to make the next entry about what to expect from this place.

The unexpected is one, but y'all knew it was only a matter of time until I started spouting cliche.

~Luce

This city is the biggest pile of pure junk on the face of the Earth. It is literally a landfill. Someone dropped us here in the middle of a vermin-ridden, rubble-pocked city of dust.

Now, you can cry about it all you want, that won't change anything at all. Instead, you'd do better to remember that one man's trash is another man's treasure and the second you start looking at all this junk as raw materials you're primed for survival.

We are human beings, we're supposed to make tools and manipulate things. If you need a weapon, I guarantee at any given place or time there's a chunk of concrete on a metal rod, there's tools, there's scissors, there's cloth to make slings and there's metal damn near everywhere that can be sharpened.

On the matter of food, there's the dumps, sure enough... But there's also the option of hunting on your own and finding some edible plants. You're less likely to get yourself poisoned that way. Chistyakov and I try to get rid of as many of the poisoned rations as we can but there's always a chance we're gonna miss a few... and why eat nasty MRE's when you can fresh cook something yourself anyway? There are birds, rats, squirrels, pigeons and probably some lizards, and there's seed packets in some of those abandoned stores that ain't been unsealed yet. Why settle for less if you can do a better job yourself?

Y'all are smart, I know you can figure something out or that you're smart enough to ask someone who CAN figure it out if you're stumped. There's a whole city out there and you're begging for trouble if you don't use the whole damn thing.

~Luce

There are just various scribbled notes on this page.....

Toothdog: It's in their big groups they can getcha. Alone, they're kinda stupid, easy to take care of and don't seem as interested in chewing off one of your arms.

Firearms: Found some recently. For the love of God, never let someone who is mentally unstable have one... Especially if they have good aim. Keeping a sniper mentally healthy is important if you want your skull in once piece by the end of the week.

Speaking of keeping people mentally healthy... Cigs. Need to find more. Check downtown. Nobody wants to see certain people have a nic-fit. Then again, this'd be a damn good time for some monster to show up. Poor bastard wouldn't know what hit him!

Saw that loner again today. Don't know how he does it, but damned if I won't find out.

--Those two are at it again. I've about had it up to here. Gonna send 'em away if this keeps up. Can't endanger everyone else.

Groceries(sorta):
~Witch-proof the food
~More 2x4's, more rope
~rain barrels? Need to get fresh water somehow.
~Witch-proof our ammo and cigarettes
~Dog-proof the first floor.
~Smoke out beehive in file cabinet on mainstreet.
~Speaking of, find bottles for the honey
~Collect guano from that bridge where all the bats are
~New deck of cards. Someone stole all the aces outta this one
~Cigs
~Matches
~Caps...? Somewhere around here has to have caps.
~(something illegible)

an older entry, torn out and tucked in between some pages:

Today's lesson learned:
What looks like a moderate-sized, low-flying vulture might actually be a gigantic, high-flying mutant terror.

It might also take out a car when it crashes. Fancy that.

Chicken for dinner tonight I guess but I swear if one of us grows an extra limb I'm gonna' shoot Chauvin with the same flare gun that done killed this damn thing.

He won the bet at any rate.


And the page it's tucked by:

There are more of them. The big damn birds, I mean. Bastards took someone up and dropped 'em from fifty feet... the rest of us were lucky, even if we wound up stitchin' up a few slices.


Scribbled under that:

Every three weeks there's four more birds, like clockwork.
At least we know a few things about 'em now.
1) fragile, they bleed out fast
2) repelled by fire. This is good to know.
3) can be killed by a flare-gun
4) highly edible. damn tasty.

Some safety tips here that SHOULD be common sense but I've noticed they get BADLY underrated sometimes.


Watch your footing or wind up with a broken leg.

Wood rots faster than concrete.

Tug a rope to make sure it's attached VERY WELL to something before you go swinging on the damn thing.

Not all the telephone wires in this city are completely dead.

When all else fails, throw dirt in the bastard's face and run.

Look AND Think before you leap.

Do not reach your hand where you can't see, if you can't help it.

If you do get a gun, make sure the barrel isn't clogged before you shoot.

Decided I'd get myself out and about with Nik today to get some supplies. Found that Loner tucked away in some building huddled up in a blanket.

Didn't look good at all. So naturally since I'd figured out how he'd kept himself going okay recently I figured I'd try it.

He's still out but I'm cooking up some remedies, quite literally, right now.

I'm pretty sure he got sick from the food. If there's one thing Nik's taught me, it's how to avoid the MRE's that are "doctored", so to say. This fella wasn't so lucky, it was probably laced with some kind of bacteria judging by his fever.

At least I hope it's bacteria, it'd be easier to deal with.


Nik and I actually found some mint and catnip, thank God for city parks n' petstores, they're all overgrown to hell but that helped me out, and even more than me, the Loner. That and some honey should take care of the fever and his stomach for a little while, but I'll need to find a med dump soon. All of the close one's have been pretty well extinguished since... recent events.

I can't go very far myself, but I'm sure Nik will be more than able to help.

Here's somethin'gfor ya'll:

If you can't find it. Make it. If you can't make it, look harder and find a substitute. All of us should be looking for and using books, or at least the ones that are in readable condition. There are so many things that could save our lives in those things if we'd use our hiding time to read and plan.


scribbled on the bottom are cude, blocky plans for rooftop and gutter gardens, with a nearly illegible list of plants that would grow best give the climate.

The next page:

Don't feel bad about taking things out of pawn shops, schools or apartments. Nobody else is going to use 'em so might as well.