It was night now, and I was holed up in my divot looking at my hands, reflecting on what happened today. It made no sense. I had no such ability before, yet now I can create such ridiculous power. I began to think more on what happened after the initial shock wore off. I immediately recalled that flow of strength that I felt when the explosion happened. I felt that it was just myself improving at using a mallet before, but that didn't explain why it exploded. After some experimentation, I found that I could recreate that explosion with other sticks. I found that I could do it 4 more times, or 5 total, before the strength faded and I couldn't recreate the explosion after that. While this new found ability didn't help much with catching fish at first, I realized that the fish only had to be near it and it would be blown from the water without completely eviscerating it. If nothing else, I now have a more consistent method of getting fish now that the mallet, rest in peace, is gone.
Among all the racing thoughts, I recalled that moment in the lab where I first experienced that feeling of overflowing strength. It was when that piece of coal flew at me when this feeling began. I didn't think much at first because of the conditions of the facility, but maybe that was the origin of this strength. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the other piece of coal that I grabbed. I rotated it between my fingers to try to inspect it closer, but it felt like nothing more than a normal rock. I couldn't help but wonder if the strength would come back by morning. It only now occurred to me that perhaps this strength was not able to regenerate. While it only makes sense in my fantasy filled head that it would come back, the realistic air of the situation made me wonder what makes that thought true. The truth was I had no evidence for anything that I was thinking. While my mind ran itself crazy with possibilities and explanations, nothing could ring true with what I know now. I thought myself in circles just like this until my mind couldn't handle it and forced me to sleep.
I woke up in the morning to be relieved that the strength had come back. What was the initial point of worry, was now met with a reassuring piece of information.
'for now, the strength can regenerate'
From my experimenting I could now feel where the strength started from. It sat in a pool right where I think my heart is. It was like when I looked for it I could feel its weight. Not physically, because my I felt no additional strain on the rest of my body. But I could feel it on my mind. It was hard to reference the quantity, but it is something I could probably gauge with a use of 'Explosion' for lack of a better term.
The afternoon sun hung in the sky now, and I lay exhausted net to the stream. My chest heaves up and down, my heart beat slamming in my head. After more experimentation, and killing more fish than I could possibly eat, I had some more answers. So I don't need to sleep to regenerate the strength, which i have now decided to call 'Energy' just to be concise. 'Energy' regenerates slowly. based on my unclear sense of time, the rate at which it regenerated was around one 'Explosion' per hour or so. I have also discovered that it is incredibly hard to control. I can do it while I am swinging something, but that is because it is easier to channel 'Energy' through a movement. Something like a trigger. Trying to move it with only my will is difficult, but letting my body guide it feels much simpler. And I have also discovered one other thing. If you attempt to use more 'Energy' than you have available, your body will exhaust itself to make up the difference to complete the 'Explosion'.
That is what left me is such a feeble state right now. From what I felt, I should have had nearly enough for a full explosion. Apparently that small amount extra I had to make up for was still significant for what my body had.
After some recovery time, feeling began to creep back into my body. I got up and slowly started to eat some of the fish that had died for the sake of experimentation. As I ate and the fatigue faded little by little and I got some physical strength back. For now my thought process led me back to the lab. I now know that what I felt while I was back there wasn't hallucinations, but instead was likely me acquiring 'Energy'. I believe that if they had the materials for me to gain 'Energy' there, it would be reasonable to believe they had other information about it among the information they held there. Not to mention it was just another reason to scratch the itch of exploring that place.
After eating as much fish as I could, I went home, grabbed a stick for protection, and returned to the laboratory. Before advancing through the main lab, I quickly back tracked to the barracks area, and didn't find anything worth taking note of. any food was dust by now, and nothing that seemed worth taking caught my eye. Although I couldn't see the food itself and understand what it was, It is clear that there was a lot of it. A store room at the back was absolutely massive. It had more than enough food to last for years and years. I also looked into the exercise room only to find a bunch of strange but fairly simple exercise equipment. All this led me to one thought. Once the inhabitants made it to this place, they were meant to stay there for extended periods of time. While the information seemed worthless to me now, It has to mean something eventually, right?
After entering the lab, I began to look more towards the archive that lay beyond the lab. As I entered the room, the lights flashed on to reveal a small rectangular room. The walls to my left and right had shelves running from corner to corner. In front of me was a single bookshelf on the other side of the room. I began to look on the shelves on the sides of the room. All the books had labels on their spines, and by looking through them they ranged from a wide variety of topics. There were some that appeared to be about math or science, but also fiction. There wasn't a library full of books here, no, but there was enough to support my estimations before. That this place was meant to sustain a small group for a long time. These books likely served as one of their sources of entertainment.
After looking for anything that caught my attention, I looked toward the shelf at the end of the room. While the other shelves were filled, almost overflowing, this one only had 3 books. They were labeled as log books #1, #4, and #16. This indicated there had to be others, but they were nowhere to be found on the other shelves. I took the 3 log books and decided it was probably best to head back to my shelter. I left the archive, then the lab, and walked back through the cave entrance. I saw that the sun was setting through the canyon, and felt glad that I made my decision to come back. Just skimming through all the different books took so long, reading 3 of them wouldn't be any easier or less time consuming. After entering my divot, I decide to spend some time before sleeping reading this journals.