Dear journal,
Have you ever wondered why a Witch cries? I always have, but I guess when you're stuck out in this wasteland of a world things that peak your curiosity are little more evident. What I mean to say is that with no one around you tend to be more willing to put your life on the line for things that just seem... well interesting. It's not that you don't care about living anymore, you still do, but since there's no one there to tell you they're worried about you or afraid of what will happen, you tend to become a lot more willing to expose yourself to things that are more dangerous. And my sense of curiosity has never been a good thing. Since day one of the infection, I've been more curious as to why people change the way they do than why the few of us survivors aren't effected at all.
I'm not one of those doctor like people that would spend the rest of their time studying their own blood seeing how it is so different from everyone else and then showing how that specific thing is what is keeping us from changing. I mean I see the point in doing that, but I'm no doctor, how could knowing what is curing me help me do anything other than gain that knowledge? No, it can't and I can only assume that probably 99% of all survivors aren't doctors either. So instead I should put my curiosity to some better use right? And that would be to discover more about these different races of “zombies.” I mean what exactly makes a person become a Hunter, Smoker, Boomer, Tank, or Witch?
Well this time around I was out to find out what makes a Witch a Witch, probably the only one more deadly would be trying to figure out what made a Tank a Tank. But anyway that's where my story here begins I guess. You see in my insatiable curiosity, I felt the need to go out and find a Witch on my usual runs for food. I would always go at night of course because even zombies have to see you with their eyes. I always carried with me a pipe bomb in case of swarms and a silence pistol and submachine gun. If zombies can't hear or see you, you're not there. And of course I always had a medical pack on me in case of scrapes with zombies I couldn't avoid.
The residential districts are the best places to find food so I began my hunts there and anyway small suburban populace equaled a small suburban populace of zombies. But I guess this isn't important to why I'm writing. So it was on my way there that I was heading through a forest when I heard her moaning. My eyes began to shine with opportunity. I searched around the empty forest for this witch. That's when I saw her, there she was to my right sitting in a clearly on top of a mound of dirt. Her bright yellow eyes looking down at the ground as she wailed loudly. I crouched down and slowly approached gripping the pistol on the back of my belt.
This wasn't a too uncommon occurrence, and I was pretty sure if she came straight for me I could put a few rounds in her head before she hit me. But in the off chance that I miss, I would die. I shrugged knowing that this was just the hazards of this “new” world. I moved in closer and closer when suddenly she noticed my presence. I stopped as she stared me down. I could now see her pale body more clearly. Covered only in destroyed white rags she sat there crying as she flailed her long sharp claws at me. I stopped gripping the pistol tighter in my hand.
I froze in my spot, I had never been so close to a Witch. The common practice of course was to avoid her or finish her off before she even noticed your existence. I was basically engaging in wasteland taboo. She began to yell louder probably annoyed by my presence. I tried to calm her by talking to her. I just said things like Hello and my name. You know, that I wasn't planning to hurt her, basically what you say to a scared animal hoping it can understand you. But that's when the most astonishing thing happened. She stopped yelling. Just like that her crying ceased.
She slowly rose to her feet and walked towards me. I had never seen a Witch walk before. Run, yes, sprint, yes, but never walk. She moved closer to me. I sat there perfectly still afraid that backing away might set her off. She moved in closer, and I gripped my gun wondering if I should shoot her before she could hit me. I froze though, even if I had wanted to I wouldn't have been able to. She stopped next to me and sat back down looking into my eyes with her golden glowing ones. She looked at me with her eyes full of tears.
I had never been this close to a Witch before, hell it was closer than I had ever wanted to be to a Witch, even now. It astonished me though, I had never even thought these things capable of crying much less understanding what I was saying. At that exact moment I felt I had finally understood what made a Witch. She sat down next to me as I began to talk, telling her stories of things... well things I made up on the spot since I was afraid saying nothing would piss her off.
The sun would be coming up soon so I had to leave. I told her of this and she yelled sending chills down my spine. She stood up above me. I quickly pulled the pistol out from behind me but it was too late, she was already coming in. I was a goner... or at least I thought as much. But all she did was wrap her arms around me giving me a hug. I nearly passed out from the shock, but instead I gave her a hug back. She then turned around and proceeded to turn back to her mound of dirt. She watched as I left back for my safe house.
Well the food run had been a bust but that might have been one of the best discoveries ever. Witches were different from all other zombies for one reason, they regained intelligence. From my encounter this was all I could deduce. Witches were people that were infected by this disease but because of something like high intelligence, they managed to regain and withhold part of their humanity. A small section of them that allowed them to regain human thought, but the problem was that the infection has destroyed enough of that human intelligence to ruin communication for them forcing them to be humans trapped in zombie bodies.
So that brings up the question, why do witches attack humans then? I mean if they are slightly intelligent beings, they wouldn't attack their brethren right? Not necessarily. I feel there are two possibilities for this, one is that they also retain human emotion, hence why they spend all day crying. There's nothing more sad then living in an apocalypse surrounded by idiots who can think, and the still intelligent ones think you're crazy. And because of this they are often just enraged by anything that comes near them resembling what they used to be. The other possibility is that the infection slowly destroys their minds as well. And eventually they just go insane.
Of course the main unanswered question then is, why are all Witches female? Are women just smarter than men or do they have something that makes their minds more resistant to infection? This I know not, and I'm sure those of you reading this out there have formulated your own opinions as I have. Anyway, maybe I'll go visit her again tomorrow.