The Dracula Index - Vampire Epoch//01

15 - Mell

MELL'S NOTES BOOK
October 22, 2245
Entry #6 - Handwritten

I know. It's been a while. I guess Bryne and I were expecting a lot to happen.

After we discovered the Chronoscope, he took the boys and I took the girls, hoping to arrange a meeting in order to discuss what we found and if a solution would reveal itself when we all shared what we knew. It was obvious from the start that the other job-heads were more exact with following policy. Breaking the strict law of secrecy, as we had learned from Elder Hemaris on Commencement Day, had awful consequences. The most severe being exile.

I hadn't expected communication to be so difficult. It's clear to me now that we've all grown apart. Even Roz feels an attachment to the Cookers.

"They're my family," she told me. "You guys are just who I went to school with."

I argued that we were more of a family to her than they ever would be. We grew up together, shared a bedroom. That struck a note with Felicity, but I knew it would. I almost didn't bother reaching out to her in the first place. Felicity knows the least about encampment history. Guardians are just caretakers for the weak and confused, and have no need for the confidential. Her participation in a joint meeting is impractical, plus Felicity only wants to follow orders and live, what she calls, a proper life. Lane was preoccupied when I sought her out at the Inventory Post. Her petition for a physical engagement with Primo, the Scaver job-head, had come through. I thought that could be good, since she might be able to gather some special information through him, like if R-34 ever had a Chronoscope, or if there was a special reason we were expanding into Encampment R-13. But Lane was the harshest with me. She told me to forget everything I saw and to never go back.

The boys had obviously told Bryne the same because he stopped checking on the Chrono-tablet last week. He still showed signs of optimism until the day he approached Luther Priest. Ugh, I hate calling Lenny by that name. Luther did what we asked and shared something private, but it was enough to make Bryne realize how serious our situation is here. Overnight, all interest in the Chronoscope disappeared. I had almost lost hope myself. And then, today, Rufus returned.

We've been making significant progress on surrounding the other encampment with a new boundary. It remains separate from ours, in case of breach. On the R-34 side, the Generals have been extending the encampment fence into the desolate patch. That makes a lot of Encampers nervous. As of today, three of the ruined buildings are protected on the R-13 side, which they tell me is good.

Crevan has been busy as well. Almost all of the Bearers are pregnant with his offspring. Edie is still resting in Hospital House, infected but not pregnant. Roz thinks that Edie is worsening her wound at night when the Helpers leave to their bunkhouses. They're not even allowing her to have visitors anymore. Thankfully, I had a chance to explain the Chronoscope to her last week. She was a little delirious from the drugs. All she said to me was, "Can it help us escape?"

I've never seen Edie so distraught. She feels imprisoned, and I understand why. Especially after seeing the way they treated the curious man who had appeared last month.

He stayed on the hill for some time. We saw his fires at night. I even heard him whistling once. It was an unfamiliar song, but lyrical and lovely. I had to pretend I was more interested in picking potatoes from the garden than observing the way the Watchmen pointed their rifles at him the moment he started whistling.

Oscar looks haggard now. The Watchmen have been losing sleep since the man on the hill arrived. And apparently, they've even been pushing the wandering gypsy further from the fences. I was able to get a good look at him two weeks ago. He goes by the name, Kumpan, which is a terrible sort of name. He has a weirdly shaped body, a wide mouth, and a long, hooked nose. His eyes are set far apart, almost to his ears. But no one in the watchtowers is afraid of him. I hear he doesn't even approach the picket boundary.

Kumpan laid out a scrap of faded red fabric on the dry, dirt ground of the desolate patch and arranged his curious items in a line. Job Priest went out to meet him with Luther cautiously behind. They traded gemstones for gemstones. One as currency, the other as amulets. I saw Luther wearing a blue-ish one around his neck later that day. Suddenly, my old friend felt sturdy and less terrified by all he had been told. I asked Luther about Kumpan yesterday at dinner-hour, when he came to the Generals table to pray over our tureen of garlic potato soup, and he shook his head firmly. He did smile at Bryne, though. I could hardly make it out since our table is in the darker corner of Mess Hall. We had a yellow light over our table last month. Unlike those purplish ones, the yellow bulbs don't last long. I guess the Scavers keep bringing them back anyway.

Once Kumpan the Gypsy had left, waddling his way up the valley floor, I noticed that the man on the hill was also gone. I'm uncertain if the Gypsy scared him, but everything seemed to get back on track, which made me realize just how unsettling it was to the entire encampment to have a mysterious stranger nearby. Many of the Watchmen on the iron towers took that as a sign to rest, but it was a mistake. They hadn't seen Rufus and two other Scavers waving for assistance as they dragged their fallen companion into the valley.

"Help us!" Rufus screamed, waving a necklace of garlic over his head to get the attention of the camp.