AND THE DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL ENCLAVES THEREIN (PART THE FIRST)
(Editor's note: The excerpts from this journal purport to be the account of a Taker named Hobo Johnson, as dictated to another Taker who refers to themselves in the journal as Skeevy. The probability of said account being factual, given the nature of the claims involved regarding travel and four plus years of survival in The Loss without a crew, is too small to credit. However, we believe that, if nothing else, this shit's good for a laugh.
PS - the accounts cannot possibly be in any coherent order as written, due to travel distance and location.)
April 21 - Sitting around with Hobo again while we wait for Marsha Three to get back on her feet from the last job. I swear the guy tells a great story, and just when you finally start to believe he's piled his bushit one meter too high for his socks, damned if he doesn't come out with something that makes you believe it just might be true.
Today's something was a life preserver in a language he swears is Dutch. Hell if I know, and hell if I'm gonna dig around looking for a way to disprove it. It ain't English, whatever it is that got wrote on it.
Anyways, he says the place is named Nilty Jens, or something like that. Dutch. The locals told him it was named after a boat. Hell, I'm from Nimrod, Montana, 'bout two miles from Singleshot and a 20 minute walk to Goat Lick Overlook. I can't even make jokes about a place named after a boat after that.
So, it's a big artificial island, part of the dam system. Hobo says the locals barricaded up both highways leading up after they cleared it off, because it's about a mile square, it's got wind turbines, arable land, and boat docks. Claims he spent about a month holed up there after he left France. He'd have stayed longer, except he says they're all batshit crazy.
There's jobs to be had, according to Hobo - Takers all use boats and do scavenge missions on the parts that are still dry and the buildings in the next city over the bridge if they feel REAL lucky. Seems the city is full of casualties from everyone trying to head to safe zones. Casualties don't swim, but they don't need to breathe, either. Makes dune watching fun at night.
All that's bad enough, but nothing I haven't heard before, even the parts where he claimed the guys in charge opened the dam and let 'em drown prematurely rather than have to share the island with them. Hobo claims they've got a hard limit on population, though - 1200 people. If anyone comes in, someone leaves, if you catch my drift, he says with a wink. There's a lottery, and the winners either go outside the wire if they're quick enough or they get to add to the fertilizer. I asked him how HE got in if that's the case, and he claims he iced someone on his way in on a bad deal, so no need for a lottery. That's the point I called bullshit, because who does that and deliberately wastes bodies? According to Hobo, though, the man in charge is a high ranker from before The Loss and crazy as hell about sustainability. He must BE crazy, though, because they still gotta barter with the other Enclaves for animals and hydraulics for the dam and construction materials and stuff. They trade in fish and scavenged goods, but they can only fish the far side of the dam, because no one trusts that casualties can't infect them, too. What absolute horse hocky.
That's when he pulled out the preserver. I never knew a guy to have so much stuff workin' as a solo, and not getting many jobs that I can see. Hell, if he's got that much bounty to spare, maybe I should have a look-see around his place sometime when he's not there. He won't miss it. Anyways, I damned sure ain't headed to Dutch-land anytime this lifetime.
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