User:AreYouGoingToEatThatNuke?/HTML experiments and Nukey's Book

Fallout Fanon
A Dead Planet

By Nicholas Lee

Chapter One: Foreboding

"Alpha Lima to base! We are crashing! SEND HELP NO- ARGHHH!" Tsien Gregorfield yelled. The ship spiraled towards the snowy landscape of Europa. It blazed through the atmosphere, creating a red aurora around the bulky but sleek ship Alpha Lima. Explosions rocked the ship as it darted for the ice that covered Europa. They had left Earth to study Europa on July 14th, 2045. It skidded along the thick ice covering the sea the crew named Great Hydra. The ship finally halted to a stop and a dramatic uprising occurred in the ocean underneath....

A bulky mass that looked small from the crew’s perspective rose to the surface. The crew was puzzled at the odd form below the ice. It ascended through the cracks that formed because of the tidal forces and the heat from the core of Europa.

The crew emerged in a daze, wondering what happened. The crew consisted of an exobiologist, Louis Regertine, a xenotechnology, Tsien Gregorfield, a doctor, Dr. Floyd Redwood and Captain Carter Williams. Carter descended from the ships interior, dragging along a huge LED lamp followed by a extension cord. He then turned on the light, but what he did would change the course of evolution on the moon of Europa...

A phototrope is, basically, a organism that has its life cycle started by light. What Carter did activated this phototrope, and doomed all of the people aboard the Alpha Lima. The light was the brightest Europa has ever had.

Chapter 2: The Great War

As the astronauts studied the vast landscape of Europa, petroleum and other materials began to be scarce. China had invaded Alaska and stole the oil the U.S. had been mining. A project known as the Ultimate Spear begun, and they envisioned a drill with a carbon nanotube tip used to dig out the last of the oil from the ocean. The European Commonwealth had flung all of their military at the Middle East and took over some of the last assets of oil from them. As the U.S. became desperate, the gas prices soon rose to, right before the Great War, to 13,000$ per gallon. Soon, the U.S. annexed Canada. Their citizens rebelled, but the U.S. military had suits of armor called Shock Suits, and became walking tanks and swiftly executed all rebels. They hacked at every tree, perforated the landscape of Canada and drained the life from it. The United Nations disbanded soon, and then, with all the rage and violence could not be contained, and soon, all nations exchanged nuclear missiles.

Chapter 3: Retribution

“What? Igloos? Thats a form of intelligent life! How exciting!” Louis exclaimed while rushing around exploring the igloos. The igloos range from 12 inches high to 20 feet in hight. “ Im bored!” Floyd complained. A satillite the size of a soda can hid under the surface of the water, observing the creatures on Europa. It sent a low wavelength signal to Mothership Epsilon Beta, which had caused the ships wreck. The ship then recieved a signal translated “ The Destroyers (Humanity) have made contact with life on Europa. Begin observation.

Chapter 4: Invincible

“When the war of the beasts brings about the worlds end, The goddess descends from the sky. Wings of dark and light spread abliss Her gift everlasting.”

Loveless, Act III

The message the Alpha Lima’ crew sent had finally reached the International Rescue and Support Space Station, or IRSSS. “Somebody send a rescue ship!” Alexei Trojanei commanded. “Send in Nikolai Noviliskai, Marth Mawrition, Likioai Arendel and Catherine Sersitia!” Alexei shouted. The ship Retribution Zeta and a drone ship Harbinger were sent en route to the moon Europa to rescue the poor fated Alpha Lima. They suited up, of course they grabbed weaponry for all they know these Europans are hostile, and went after their fellow humans.

Chapter 5: Exile

When the Retribution Zeta and Harbinger reached Europa, they felt they were being watched, but they soon shook the feeling away. They had spotted the Alpha Lima crash site and decided to land there.” Hey! There’s the piece of nanotube! We should bring this back to our lab to see how they did it.” Catharine recommended.” Likolai, look at this!” Marth requested. He picked up a strange piece of metal, it glowed and when Max pointed it towards the light, it turned dark ( It might be, Marth thought, a piece of photo chromatic metal) and it hardened to the point it encumbering him because of the weight. “God! What is this?!” Marth shouted with a surprised expression. “I don’t know...I wish I did though, we should take it back.. make sure it does not get near light- look a camp!” Nikolai shouted. The group sprinted toward the camp. But then a strange sound erupted from behind the group. “ Oh my god! Likolai!” Marth cried. Likolai fell into the world below the ice, never to be found again.

Chapter 6: Lost

The crew of Retribution Zeta were shocked the ice had collapsed under Likolai’s feet. “Really, how can ice at least 60 inches thick collapse naturally?” Marth questioned.” Don’t forget about the gravitational pull Jupiter has on Europa, so cracks in the ice form very easily. Of course that doesn't rule out that something or someone caused intentional harm.” Catherine stated. “But if there was something that did this, what about the crew of the Alpha Lima?” Nikolai wondered. The crew were about to sit on some piles of flattened steel when they noticed a subterranean tunnel inside the ice. “ Hey guys! Look at this!” Marth exclaimed. “My god, its a passage of tunnels! I think- Oh my god...oh my god... its.... I do not want to talk about it.” Nikolai slurred his voice in utter disturbance. Catharine glided swiftly across the ice to see what Nikolai was so scared of. ” Ahhhhhhh!” Catharine screamed. ” It’s Likolai’s body! Oh my god what did that?” Catharine shouted. Likolai’s body had strange symbols cut into his body and a strange symbol etched into his shirt. It appeared to be a large mushroom cloud near an eagle. "Weird. What's that supposed to mean?" Catharine puzzled. "Forget about it, lets just go." Tsien ordered.

Chapter 7: Tempest

The crew of the Retribution Zeta had finally found the Alpha Lima’s crew. “I’m so glad to finally be rescued!” Tsien sighed with relief. The crew embraced each other with hugs and greetings. “So tell us... where is the piece of nanotube?” Marth requested. Catherine jumped up almost dramatically and sprinted over to a sturdy case covered with frost. She entered in her ID and the case opened. She then picked up the piece of nanotube gingerly and rushed over to Marth.” Here it is, be careful, it is very sharp.” She cautioned. Meanwhile, Nikolai had rested on his back and looked up at the sky. He stared at a unusually bright star out of the corner of his eye. He dismissed it as a distant planet and fell asleep.

“This is definitely of extraterrestrial origin!” Marth declared.” This is not exactly a carbon nanotube... it uses some type of diamond-titanium alloy. Whoever said it was a nanotube is a amateur in science, hence the word “nano”. Marth said arrogantly. “Funny, whats this?” Catherine questioned. She picked up a shard of what appeared to be... “ Oh my... Its diamond!” Catharine shouted.” What?!” Tsien and Marth said together in a outburst of excitement. They sprinted towards Catharine in a flurry of legs and sense of discovery. Suddenly they halted.” Uh, Catherine. Look below us.” Tsien said monotonically. They all looked down and then Marth nearly collapsed. “ There’s... tons of diamond below us.” Marth said, exasperated. Nobody make any attempts to take any with us! It will bankrupt the world. This is now a Class A Secret. This cannot be told to ANYONE, I mean anyone!” Tsien shouted. Everybody was dumbstruck by this new discovery.

Nikolai woke up to the pitch black of outer space. He stared up at what he thought was Earth and repeated what his mother had always told him:” Home is where the heart always is”.

Chapter 8: Silence

Nikolai had heard about the diamond below them and how it was now top secret. He was also dumbstruck by this amazing news. They all had slept for a while and then they had woke up. “Tsien, any coffee left?” Catherine asked. Tsien was scared the moment he said this: “No”. Catherine stared a hole into his eyes. “Okay.” She said in a annoyed tone. Minutes later Marth woke up and walked towards both of them with a hazy expression on his face. “What’s with the yelling?” He asked, annoyed. “Oh, we just ran out of coffee...” Tsien sighed. “Oh well, we should stay on Europa a bit longer, to observe the habitats.” Marth requested. “ Hey, anybody want to go skiing on that!” Carter said enthusiastically (which is indeed a rare sight). “ No, we have to leave. Remember that warning?” Floyd commented. “That’s right, I remember that. I think that was very sketchy...” Louis said, with a hint of sarcasm on his voice. “ Well, lets head out.” Marth said. The six crew members boarded a transportation vehicle that used superconducting magnets to keep it hovering on the ground. They speeded across the Europan wasteland. “ Hey! Look at this!” Tsien shouted. The skiff halted to a stop which startled Catharine which resulted in vomiting. “Wow! It looks like a polar bear but its fur is so... blonde.” Catherine whispered. The creature, which the crew had rushed to name Europan Bruiser, lifted itself up and glimpsed behind itself. It seemed intrigued by the crews presence. It started to walk towards them. “Its going to kill us!” Catharine shouted. Floyd nudged her gently and whispered “Shhh!”. It then came up to Catharine, who was scared out of her mind, and unexpectedly licked her hand. “ Agghhhh! Its so slimy!” She shrieked. Marth instructed them to board the skiff and leave. “Look at the picture I got!” Louis shouted euphorically. “Great picture! This can go in a biology book soon.” Tsien said to Louis to encourage him. They then sped away towards the ship. Then, it was silent.

Chapter 9: Break of Midnight

They were deafened by a loud shriek. “Oh god, what is that!” Tsien slurred with fear. A creature that could only be described as a snake crossed with a wolf. It moved like a slug, then raised his head and howled. It tried to spit something ominously red at them and missed, hitting a piece of metal on the dashboard of the skiff. It burned a hole in it. “Kill it!” Marth shouted with agitation Tsien pulled out a pistols and fired a few times. The four shots echoed against the ice towers around them. It shed no blood, but the creature limped away. One of the ice towers Tsien fired at collapsed, crushing the creature. “I know what to name it! How about Europan Spitter?” Marth requested. “Sure, why not.” Floyd replied, satisfied with the fitting name. “No time for celebrating, we need to investigate this creature for future references.” Tsien ordered. He then swiftly pulled out a pH meter, a dissolved oxygen kit ,a vial for blood samples and a surgical kit. Catherine took the pH meter and surgical kit and walked over to the dead creature. Meanwhile Marth took the dissolved oxygen kit and Floyd took the vial. Catherine then started a incision in the creatures throat to check for a poison glad. She then carefully cut the poison glad, named Sirsitia’s gland after her, respectfully, and set it down on a piece of metal. She then inserted the pH meter inside its gland and was shocked to see the results. “ A pH level of 1.3! Amazing!” She exclaimed. “Can I borrow that scalpel for a second?” Marth requested. He then cut into its chest and found a drop of blood. He took a beater and drained around 1.3 ounces of blood and stored it in the vial. Floyd checked the hole in the water in which it came from and check the DO level.” 13.4.” Marth informed. “Now that we have finis-” Tsien was paused by a horrible sound. “Get it off!” Louis shouted. A Bruiser had grabbed him and then broke a hole in the ice and dove in carrying the frightened Louis. “ He’s dead oh my god!!!” Catharine freaked out. “We must leave, quickly!” Tsien shouted. They boarded the skiff and sped away.

Chapter 10: Loveless

The crew had reached base camp within 3 hours. “I... I need to sleep.” Tsien said, horrified. “Okay, well be going to sleep to, I have had enough of this wasteland.” Catharine said. “Guess Im on watch duty...” Marth sighed. Catharine and Tsien went into their respective tents while Marth departed into the guard tower. He sat up there and looked at the Europan landscape. “Talk about art imitating nature.” He muttered. The sun hung on the horizon casting a shadow from the tall spires made of ice. He then watched cracks form in the ice, exposing the sea then ice covered it over again. Sort of like Earth, except for the odd creatures. He fell asleep, too tired to stay awake.

One day, when Marth was a little boy, he stared up at the sky, dreaming of speeding around in ships and discovering new worlds. “Wow, wasn’t I stupid?” Marth thought to himself. The morning had come to his eyes when he woke up. Catharine had already gotten up and Tsien had gone out to explore with the disturbingly quiet Nikolai and left Carter behind. “Hey Catherine, Carter, any idea why Nikolai and Tsien left?” Marth asked. “ He was going to find more species of animals for-” Catherine was stopped by a weird sight. Tsien was speeding towards them at a high velocity and halted 7 feet away. “ Somethings wrong! There’s about 10 Bruiser’s dead, it seems to be caused by more of those titacarbon tubes! I found that they were hollow and discovered they carried a disease similar to the once dangerous cancer, which we developed a vaccine for, except they were modified to eat organism’s inside out.” Tsien rushed through the sentence. “Well, we have protection. We have sealethium suits, which are impenetrable. So at least were safe from the virus.” Catherine stated. “I think we should leave, we have 4 day’s left until we might die at the hands of this entity. I’m also getting homesick too.” Marth sighed. A restlessness had settled upon the group who were worried about their fates. “Okay, everyone pack up the camp and put it inside the ship. Be quick about it, I’m not sure what will happen if we stay.” Tsien sad nervously. The crew rushed to gather the supplies and tents they had set up originally. Marth rushed into the ship with three large boxes that looked rather heavy. Tsien and Catherine carried all of the tents into the ship and after that the campsite was as barren as the rest of Europa. “We can leave... I can’t wait to get back to Earth, I now despise this moon.” Tsien exclaimed. Marth activated the ships engines and slowly lifted off the ground. It then lurched forward at a high speed and escaped Europa and sped into the void of space.

Chapter 11: Homecoming

The crew stood at the observation window, staring off into the void of space. “My God, it’s so beautiful. It’s a shame we have to go back to Earth.” Catherine said with a sigh. Marth sat at the rear of the ship, sitting in a chair and staring out the window. Then he remembered a poem he had read not to long ago: “ To become the dew that quench’s the land, to spare the sand’s, the sea’s and the sky’s, I offer thee... my silent sacrifice.” He wondered what made him remember that. The stars twinkled with a odd but mysterious pattern. But he enjoyed watching it, because he would not be able to on Earth. A strange light flashed from at least what seemed like 100 feet away. It was too bright to be a star so what could it be? He dismissed it as a star dying or some celestial event humanity has not named. He leaned back and stared at the stars. He then fell asleep, he was too tired to stay awake.

“Is it just me, or is there something following us?” Marth said in a worried tone. He then pointed at two small disk’s and a larger one. “I really think that is not important right now, but somebody keep watching the disks.” Tsien ordered. Nikolai entered through the doorway and greeted everyone. “ Where were you?” Catherine asked. “I was just watching star’s, thats all...” Nikolai responded. “Tsien, those are following us...” Floyd said in a nervous tone. “Somebody want to operate the turrets?” Tsien asked. Marth raised his hand swiftly and yelled euphorically: “Me!”. The two drone crafts, named on the gamium radio Recon Craft Theta and Recon Craft Zeta, shot forward and nearly hit us. Marth had blown out the viewports in the cockpits of the ships, killing the extraterrestrials. “The craft is moving forward!” Marth said with a touch of joy. A odd thing happened then. The ship had split in half, as if... “ We need to move out of the way! They intend on crashing into us!” Floyd shrieked. The ship was speeding forward towards the Retribution Zeta, but Tsien had other plans then to get killed. “ Everyone! Get into The Harbinger! Bring the information with you!” Tsien ordered. Everyone scrambled to get everything they could. The items had finally been collected, so then they boarded the drone ship. “Launch the ion engines at maximum force! Everyone put on your crash webbing!” Marth yelled. Everyone pulled the webbing over their selfs, and then they shot forward. Tsien had stopped mid sentence because of the force pushing him into his seat. They then hit Earths atmosphere, speeding through it in a flurry of fire and metal. The ship then flew through the white clouds and it hit a city that appeared to have been destroyed. Tsien looked through the viewport, and the computers date said November 18th, 2344.

“The geiger counter registers high amounts of radiation in this area”. Floyd said. They walked through a wasteland of dead trees and incinerated plants, until they came across a child’s skeleton. “Oh god... we’ve been gone this long?!” Catherine shouted. They stumbled across a radio that still worked. It seemed a looped radio broadcast that was still playing, it said: “Reports of Chinese ICBM’s being launched have reached News 13 and people are retreating to the shelters called Vaults. The Chinese have been edgy about the official announcement of there being no oil left on planet Earth. We all wait in terror for the ICBM’s to strike Cali-” The radio broadcast was interrupted by a loud boom which must have been the nuclear weapon. “How long have we been gone, and where are we?” Tsien asked. He then beckoned the group to follow him. They followed him to an abandoned house that was covered in boards. Tsien hacked at the wood with a nearby hatchet and the last plank fell to the ground. He then pushed open the door. A creature that looked like a zombie howled in a terrible, high pitched scream and lunged at Tsien and Carter. He hacked at the creatures chest, casing it spill a thick, vulgar, green goo. “Now we should search for a map of some kind.” Tsien asked. “Ok.” Carter and Floyd agreed. Floyd then gingerly picked through a drawer. He then discovered a safe with a digital code lock. “What the- why is there a Mark V||| safe in this shabby house?!” Tsien asked, surprised. A holotape was nearby the safe, maybe revealing the safes identity. “Somebody press the “Play” button?” Floyd asked. Carter stepped in and activated it. “If you are the pilots of the aircraft Alpha Lima, then please listen. We have a code for you to activate this safe. Inside it lies the answers to some of your questions and some secret weaponry. The password is “021137896”. Good luck.” A gruff voice said. “Hey, General Haase! I remember him!” Catharine said, excited. “Hah, my old military trainer!” Carter announced enthusiastically. Tsien then stepped up to the cumbersome safe and entered in the code. The small screen flashed green, and the lock deactivated with a loud clunk. Inside they found only a odd weapon and some experimental energy cells. “ An Atomizer? These things were only just proposed when we left!” Floyd said. Catherine then barged in and snatched the ammo and Atomizer. “I should use this, besides, Id like a bit of action.” She said proudly. “ Well fine then...” Marth said, depressively. A loud thunk rang through the house. A large trapdoor started to shake a bit. Catherine held her weapon at the door, anticipating an attack. A rabid dog then leaped through the door, snarling up a storm. Catherine shot as fast as she could. The animal howled in fury and tried to bite her. She roundhouse kicked it in the jaw and shot it in its heart. It stopped moving. “ Gah, what a fright”. She said, wiping her brow. The quadrate moved down the cellar, awaiting any attack. There was only crates. They all moved back up the cellar, and out of the house. A bullet shot through Catherine’s body.

Chapter 12: The SEV Project

The U.S. government, before the Great War, had worked on a chemical in Fort Adams called the Sigma Evolution Virus. It was developed, at the time, for the purpose of creating a stronger soldier. One that could use psionic powers and have amazing agility and strength. It was a horrible substance that terraformed a person and turned them into horrible creatures. They had no idea what they were doing.

Chapter 13: Fury

The bullet shot through her arm, causing her to wince in pain. Floyd leaped for Catharine’s gun and shot at the attacker. He tried to aim at his hand, and successfully shot the weapon out of his hand. It was obvious he was a mugger. “ Who are you, and what do you want?” The man said, angered. He wore a black torn polo with jeans that had many holes in them. His hand was bleeding a bit, and a beautiful pendant hung from his neck. “What are those spacesuits your wearing? People are bound to shoot at you, thinking your some sort of alien!” He said. Marth could not afford having this man knowing their identities. He shot a bullet through the mans chest and looted his body. “Ahhhh!” Catherine shrieked. Her arm was bleeding lightly, but it was obvious she was in pain. She was laying on the remnants of an old park bench and writhing in pain. Marth finally found a medical kit in his backpack and took out a weird contraption. “M-pack?” He thought to himself. He injected it into her arm and it started to heal. The bullet came out of the entry wound and she appeared to be extremely relived. “Wow, what was that thing you used to save me?” She asked, curious. “I really don’t know”. He responded, being very truthful. He picked up the .308 rifle he had dropped and turned towards the group. “We need to find the Pentagon and speak to whoever survived the nuclear holocaust. Whoever survived can help us with finding out what happened to North America.” He ordered. The group walked along a destroyed neighborhood before seeing the outline of downtown D.C. and looked in horror at the ruins of the great towers. They walked past a car with a bashed in windshield and two skeletons, a man and a woman, in the front seats. There were some old 100 dollar bills lying around in the seats. The group took a handful of them and put them in the man’s backpack they had collected. They walked even further until they reached downtown D.C. and noted all of the skeletal remains lying on the ground. A huge hole in the ground revealed a metro. But something went wrong.

Chapter 14: Ruins j “Run! The concrete here is too-!” Floyd yelled. They fell through the concrete and landed on their chest’s, knocking the air out of them. They were in a metro, a train that was derailed was lying on its side. Marth used the back of his rifle to break the glass window. When they entered they could smell decaying flesh, it was so horrid it could be smelt from inside their suits. The humidity made it impossible for the group to keep the suits on, so they each took turns taking them off and putting on clothes they found in a suitcase.A dead body that must have been dead for 10 hours was lying on the ground, clutching a weapon. Tsien pulled it from his hand. There was also a bag he was carrying. Tsien opened it and found some strange insignia. It was a alchemists symbol, never heard of, since alchemy existed in the 1500’s. He decided to take it for his self and take the bag for extra storage. The group wandered through the metro, frightened by the horror of death. A door to their left was bashed open, but it was made of solid steel. A man clutching a key lay dead, but he had died long ago. “Hey! A key, I’m going to grab it.” Marth declared, grasping for the mans hand. The key was instantly in Marth’s hand. Tsien walked around, finding a desk with a computer on it. A e-mail was unfinished, it read: “A while ago, we got information on how to get into that Vault! It is found with the key I have. I think its in the sewers below me, hopefully we both can get in. Dude, I just heard something! There’s screaming! Oh god they dropped the bombs!-” The message ended. The bottom portion of the screen was shot out, with blood around the edges. Marth knelt down and searched for anything they could use. He found a safe under a carpet, it appeared to be unlocked. He opened it, finding a picture of a child. He got up, leaving the picture lying inside the safe. “Catharine, should we go through that door? I don’t know if we should, it might be dangerous!” She said. “Well, what other option do we have?” Nikolai grabbed the key from Marth and put the key inside the door. It opened with a loud shunk and revealed a hallway. Further down the hallway, rock’s had collapsed from explosions from the nuke’s. A web of cracks was focused directly from a wall. Tsien then had an idea. He grabbed the energy weapon they found earlier, and blasted at the cracks. 5 minutes later, the wall finally broke apart, revealing a ladder leading down into a chasm. “I found a flashlight, thankfully.” Marth said. They all scrambled down the ladder, revealing a sewer. “Yuck! What is this?” Catharine shrieked. “Obviously it’s... um... human waste.” Tsien said, embarrassed. They walked through the sewer, trekking through foul sewage. They reached a ominous door, shaped like a gear. They found a keypad embedded in the wall. Nikolai ignorantly hit the open button. “Obviously their not going to leave-” Marth was interrupted by a loud grinding noise. The door fell open, landing on its side. The door revealed a room that was torn with rust, showing it obviously it wasn’t all that luxurious. They stepped in, seeing that wasn’t the case. A huge hole was torn in the ceiling with water pouring in from broken water pipe’s. “Hmm, something must’ve happened. Let’s go investigate!” Catharine declared with much enthusiasm. They entered a doorway that led into a kitchen. The kitchen was torn apart, obviously showing some people had led a riot through here. They then entered a dormitory, but they noticed the rest of the shelter was blocked off. They searched through footlocker’s lined at the end’s of each bed. They had no success in finding anything, but they came across one conspicuous locker. They opened it up to find a man hiding. He had dried up blood splattered across and had a slice of his arm cut open, but he seemed to have stitched it up. “Who- who are you?!” He asked, obviously startled by their appearance. “Thats nothing important at the moment. What happened here?” Tsien asked. “The raiders, they found our base. We had to send a group out to kill the man sending an e-mail to a guy who would send people to kill us.” He responded. I noticed the blood splayed across the wall. These raiders were VERY violent... maybe some sort of mutant? There was a terminal next to the wall, with a log of a mans daily life. Marth walked over to the terminal and sat down at a chair near it. He saw a .wav file, and “clicked” on it. A man said in a slurred voice: “ I have survived 10 days without food or water...The Vault engineers programmed the electricity to fail 1 week after the door shuts! Those...ugh! I cannot die in this metal tomb knowing these people planned out our death! Im the president! I should not die this way-” The recording ended, a gun had fired in the background, probably being his death. “No, no, no! He’s dead oh my god no!” Tsien yelled. “He’s not dead... wait yes he is.” The man was actually laughing. He seemed to only be 16, with a shaggy haircut. His clothing had Vault 135 on the back of it, but the front of the shirt was all cut up. His hands were covered in blood that had dried up. “So this whole search was pointless?” Tsien cried.

Chapter 15: The Memory of Lincoln

The group left the vault, annoyed with having no leads to the presidents location, then they finally came to an exit out of the metro. They were in a heavily damaged part of downtown D.C. that had been destroyed by collapsed buildings. They walked past a few buildings, and a small factory that used to make cars. Marth saw out of the corner of his eye a group of people perched in the building. One of them pointed towards him. Tsien gasped when he saw a group of people rush out in front of them. They all wore identical uniforms. They looked exactly like a Vault 135 uniform, but they h ad armored them up. “Stop where you are! Your trespassing on Slaver property!” He shouted. Catharine sighed, then started to talk. “And we should stop why?” She asked. “We will kill you if you don’t.” He sneered. A man dressed in black leather rushed from behind them and started to shoot at them with an odd weapon. It seemed to be an A12 Assault Rifle without the back of it and a scope attached. The Slavers fell to the ground in a twirl. “Hey, you guys okay?” He asked, gesturing at the Slavers. “Yea, thanks for helping us back there.” Marth said, then gestured to shake the mans hand. They both shook hands, and smiled at each other. “You don’t mind coming with us, do you?” Catharine said nervously. “Sure. I’m pretty lonely anyways. By the way, my name is Jonas.” He responded. The group went towards a ominous building. When inside, they noticed one door that looked important. Jonas went over to the door and checked it for traps. “Guys, on the other side there’s two mines. Wait a sec.” Jonas said. He went over to the door and opened it. He then ran back, as the mines exploded, kicking up dust around the door. “Now its safe.” He said, smiling as he walked through the doorway. They found another Vault, hidden inside the room. It read of the door: Vault Alpha. A scientist rushed from a corner over towards the group. “Its you! The astronauts! Please, come with me!” He said happily. The I.D. tag on his lab coat read “Dr. Jones”. He then attempted to open the Vault door. A grenade nearby exploded and the floor collapsed below him. The door still opened, revealing a room that was rusted. They wandered into the room, noticing that nothing was in the room. They walked through a door and found many dead body’s leading to a small door. They all were mutilated, with limbs torn apart. They walked towards the small door when the door slammed behind them. “Oh god, what’s happening?” Tsien said. Nikolai screamed from behind the door “Oh god its going to kill me!” and then it was silent. A monotonic voice, probably a computer, started to talk. “Welcome, astronauts, to the Vault Alpha. The president is not here at the moment. Please exit or I will kill you.” The group became startled. “How can we leave? There’s something out there! We might die if we leave!” Marth shouted. They found a elevator in the far corner. They pressed a button in the elevator, then felt their selfs lifting. After a few minutes, they came to the surface. They were in a field way outside of the city, a small town was to their right. “Should we go to the town and look around for anything useful?” Catharine asked. They all nodded their heads and sprinted towards the town. Passing a few destroyed cars, they finally arrived. The town was not deserted, but there was about 10 people waiting. They all had enraged looks on their faces. “Attack.” The leader said. The Slavers obviously were enraged at them for killing the Slavers in the city. Marth and Jonas shot at the Slavers, killing 6 of them and leaving four left. Tsien found a grenade next to a skeleton holding a bottle of wine. He pulled off the flask and threw it at the Slavers. The leader and his 3 remaining soldiers were thrown back and were killed upon hitting a wall. The group walked towards the leader, and found a note in one of his pockets. He pulled the note out and read it, it said: “To all slavers, the group of people, that people say wear weird suits, have killed a group of slavers known as The Elite. An ear of each person will have a reward of 1000 pre war dollars.” Marth put the note in his pocket. “Well, if we have a bounty on our heads we might find some people after us.” He sneered. They wandered outside of the town, finding a mans body that was dead in motion. He held a note... Marth picked up the note and read it aloud: “I need to tell you something, Jack. The Vyrewatch know where we are! When you get this message, decipher this code from our old days. At the location you’ll find everything you need. I hope this can get to you. Anyways, heres the code. “The old man sat by a old rock, with an alchemy symbol in it.” Marth put the note inside his pocket and turned to face the group. “Tsien, do you still have that alchemy symbol?” Marth asked. Tsien took off his backpack, and opened the front pocket. He got out the symbol. “We need to find out more about these “Vyrewatch” and where this “Jack” is.” Tsien suggested. Jonas gestured, with his gun, at a stray dog. It slowly walked towards them. It got closer to Jonas, step by step. It laid down on the ground and whimpered, then rolled over on its back. Jonas slowly reached for it, and started to scratch its stomach. Its tail started to wag back and forth. It rolled back over and stood up. “Aw, isn’t that so cute?” Catharine said, stroking the dogs back. “I say we name it... Damien.” Jonas said proudly. The group, along with Damien, wandered off towards a nearby rocky cliff. They arrived at the cliff, seeing if there was a cave they could rest in. They eventually gave up, then they started to pile rocks to make a wall to fortify their selves from anything that might want to harm them. Jonas honorably offered to watch over them. They all went to lay down on the dirt-covered ground. Jonas sat at a hole in the rock wall as a point of view, to shoot down any attackers. Hours passed when morning finally came. Jonas was arched on the ground, sleeping peacefully. They got up, ready for another day of searching.

Chapter 16: The Search of Meiyerditch

“I think there’s a place called Meiyerditch where the government put all military and political figures. Maybe thats a good place to start.” Jonas said, while pulling out an old and crumpled map:

He pointed at a red dot on the map. “This is approximately our location.” He paused, then pointed at the green dot far to the right. “I think Meiyerditch is located here, but I heard that the robots are too deadly for anyone to go near it.” Jonas said, with a shiver. “Perhaps we could attempt to go in? I mean, we are United States astronauts, so I think we could get in.” Marth suggested. The group waited for a moment, thinking about it. “I think its worth a shot.” Tsien said, giddy with impatience. The group strode to the north, towards an old semi truck. Its cargo was detached from its back and was lying on its side, 10 feet away from it. Jonas and Catharine went over to investigate. They pulled open the door on the cargo, and discovered a few barrels of gasoline, without any signs of damage, and a few old motorcycles. “Maybe we could use these...” Jonas suggested until Catharine intervened. “No... its to dangerous, radiation could have damaged the motor. If we were to activate the vehicle, it would explode.” Catharine interjected. “Oh... well okay then...plan B anybody?” Jonas asked, waiting for an answer. “We walk? Thats the only way. Besides, you need it.” Marth snickered. Jonas grinned at him and faked kicking him. Marth smiled politely back, imitating shooting at him. “Ha ha, very funny.” Tsien said, irritated. “What’s up with you? You’ve been so pessimistic ever since we got here.” Catharine said, with a tone of anger in her voice. Damien started to growl at them for fighting, but then silenced himself. “Im frustrated were getting nowhere with this journey.” Tsien snarled. “Well, try to stop being so angry, think about the rest of us and how we feel. Everybody here has lost their family’s too.” Catharine retorted. “Lets just keep going, there’s no point in arguing with each other.” Jonas interrupted, then everybody was quiet. The group stepped out of the cargo hold, and started to walk towards an old barn. A silo had fallen over, crushing the house. The silo was rusted, with a disgusting brown. The farmland to the north of it was barren, with occasional trees that had been fried by the nukes. Jonas and Marth went in the house through a broken wall. A skeleton was leaning over a table, with a plate and utensils in front of him. Another skeleton was on the floor, with some Cranberry Steak still in her hand, yet to be cooked. Jonas took the Cranberry Steak off the ground and put it in his bag. Marth went up the stairs to what remained of it, at least. A doorway was in front of him, resulting in Marth going into it. It apparently was a room meant for a baby. There was a crib tipped over in the corner of the bedroom, with blocks labeled with worn out letters scattered all over the floor. A ruined teddy bear was inside the crib, with a skeleton grasping it. Marth gasped in horror and rushed to leave the room. He looked at the end of the hallway, crushed by the silo. He saw a tool cabinet with an old acetylene torch in it, with a welders mask. He put on the welders mask and grasped the acetylene torch and walked over to the silo. He activated the torch and burned a 7 foot rectangle in the silo. He stepped through the hole and nearly lost his footing. He grasped onto a ladder and while hanging, burned a circle through it. He crawled through the hole, and discovered he was in the parents room. A bookcase had fallen over, revealing a safe. Marth went over to the safe and burned through the safes wall. He discovered a few pre war dollars and a key. It was to the safe. “What idiot locks his key in the safe?” He thought to his self. He went back through the silo, and went down the staircase, and met Jonas and Catharine waiting patiently for him “What took so long?” Jonas asked, a bit angry. “Well, I had to get through that silo, for the sake of exploration.” He smiled. “Ugh, you have a huge issue if your joking around.” Catharine growled. There was a long pause, because nobody knew what to do now. “Lets keep walking?” Jonas suggested, with a weak smile. Catharine groaned. “Well, besides having an aching leg, lets go!” She said, with monotonic excitement. They set off again.

Chapter 17: Tempus Vernum

A weary wind blew a piece of ragweed across the ground. The group was weary, weak with tiredness. But they carried on. A few hours later of walking, Jonas spotted an old drug store. A sign read: Extra-Aid Pharmacy. “I think we might find something to relive our pain. Maybe some caffeine pills?” Jonas wondered. “Well, we should look. It could help a bit...” Catharine said, her voice traced with stress. They finally had arrived, happy they could find some medicine. The door was shut, maybe showing there is nobody in there. Jonas led the group in, Catharine was fearing that something will ambush them. When they looked around, the place was in shambles. Shelfs were tipped over, and empty boxes littered the place. The roof obviously collapsed and blocked off the rest of the building. Tsien pointed towards a door labeled: Good-For-All Pharmacy; employees only. Marth shrugged and opened the door. There were shelfs lined with pain relievers, caffeine pills and sleep aid. They stuffed as much as they could in their backpacks. They walked towards the door, and found a strange man staring at them through the door. He held an axe, crusted with blood. He had a psychotic look on his face. He wore clothes that were in shreds. He fell to the ground, with the psychotic look on his face. Jonas reloaded his gun, and looked at everyone. He was confused at their shocked faces. “I shot him, big deal.” He sneered. “Well that was a bit fast...we were a bit surprised.” Tsien said, breathing a sigh of relief. “Lets get going. We have a bit more-” Marth said, stopped by a shrieking voice. “Veni veni venias, ne me mori facias!” A high pitched voice yelled. Jonas turned towards the sound a spotted a girl. She was dressed in pre war clothing with a rough image of a nuke painted on her. She held a mini nuke, designed for the Prototype Gamma nuclear rifle. She held a detonation switch in her hand. “I am the-” A man interrupted her speech, hitting her over the head with a shovel. “It was a Zerjien, a robot that has its own mind.” The man announced. He stepped out from a ruined aisle. He wore leather pants, lined with grenades and throwing knifes. He had a rifle in its holster on his back. “My names William. William Arlington. Im going to come with you all on your little quest... boredom can be a factor in how you think.” He grinned, tapping his head. “I guess another person could be a bit of a positive.” Tsien said, smiling at all the new friends he’s making. They walked out of the pharmacy store, following an old road that had long worn away, leaving traces of asphalt and occasional yellow stripes. They walked along the road, boredom filled the air.

Chapter 18: Somethings Watching Us

The group had walked for hours, and hours, searching for Meiyerditch. But something was following them. “You know what. This is pretty annoying considering the odds of us finding Meiyerditch. We aren’t exactly the best people at exploring...” Jonas said, sadly. “What exactly are you people looking for? I’m not understanding the situation.” Williams said, with a puzzled look plastered on his face. “We are astronauts, not Jonas or the dog, from the ship Alpha Lima. We were in space so time passed longer on Earth then in space, so we came back after this nuclear war. So we need to find the president and tell him the details of our mission.” Tsien said, with an exasperated sigh. “Thats pretty weird... Well, time to go.” Williams said. They walked towards a small neighborhood. A house to their left had boards nailed on every possible window or door. A tricycle was lying on its side, never to be rode again. Most of the other houses here were destroyed or entirely gone. A sign in front of a school read: Dawn Elementary School. Under it read some announcements: School is cancelled due to the threats of nuclear fallout. Also, a PTA meeting is scheduled tonight to discuss the safety of our children. The rest of the text is missing, due to the wind blowing away the letters. The school was bombed out, and seemed to be impossible to explore. It would be smart to go in and loot the school, since the text books would be worth a lot. They decided not to explore the building. They moved on towards a highway that was still contact. A few cars were tipped over, with a semi crushing over them. The group got far enough across the highway to be able to look across the wasteland. The wasteland was not full of green and blue hues, but a scarred wasteland full of ugly browns and rusted metal. “Wow... I never thought it looked this bad...” Jonas said, depressed. “It can’t be like this everywhere... that would be just out right crazy.” Tsien said. They paused for a moment, then walked away. They finally reached the end of the highway when a odd helicopter-like thing flew overhead. It seemed to land in a mountain many miles away. The group stood, looking at the mountain with a puzzled expression. They then turned away and walked away. A city towered overhead, worn with destruction. People were high up in the building, watching them with the scopes on crude rifles. The one that was the closest to the ground pointed at a man standing above a badly made gate. The group reached the city walls, when a man yelled out: “Who are you and what brings you to Nantos?” The man asked, in a gruff and harsh voice. Quickly, Marth improvised and responded: “We seek shelter and we wish to trade.” He quickly said. “We allow you access, but please do not cause trouble, its hard to find ammo.” He said, with a quick smile. The gate opened with a loud screech, then rested to a stop. They walked into the city, awed at the architecture. The city was completely made out of scrap metal. There were even houses crafted out of metal too! “We should sell some of this junk, we need some supplies for our trip.” Tsien said. “Lets split up and find anything we could use.

Chapter 19: Keep on Moving

The group had explored every crook and nanny in the town called Nantos. Tsien, Jonas and Marth had gone to a general store to sell some of the stuff they had collected along the way. The rest of the group had decided to sleep, they were so tired from the long journey. “Williams is a weird man,” Catharine thought to herself. “ He has not come out from his room. I think he’s out to kill us. He isn’t the person you’d trust your life to... I guess I’ll wait to see how this turns out.” She said, staring out the makeshift window in her room. She soon succumbed to the sleep that everybody had hours ago.

The next day, they got out of the town and decided to leave. They had bought some food, enough to keep them alive, and some weapons. A gas station was ahead of them, with cars never to refill their gas tanks. A overturned dumpster had papers and candy wrappers pouring out. Jonas pointed at a shack on a mesa, where a man was sitting in a crude chair, watching them. He picked up a crude hunting rifle and aimed at Williams. Quickly, Jonas responded by whipping out a small .44 pistol and aimed at the man. He pulled the trigger, and the man fell back, dead as the plants around them. “What was that!?” Williams yelled, startled. “It was some man. He must’ve wanted to kill us. Luckily, I notice things very well.” Jonas said, with a quick smile. They continued onward, towards a huge mountain. A quick flashback in Jonas’s head revealed that this mountain was where that helicopter landed. He soon shook the thought and payed attention to their journey. Catharine seemed really nervous about something. “Hey, Cath, your awfully giddy. What’s up?” Jonas said, with a heartwarming smile. “I have a feeling about that ship we saw...and the place it landed. Could it be a recon craft?” She said, nervously. “I wonder... is it the Hallowed Marauders?” He said, with a tone of extreme fear into his voice. “If it is...we might die...” Williams said, scared out of his mind. Catharine, Tsien and Marth were puzzled. They had no idea what they were talking about. “Hallowed Marauders? Who are they?” Tsien finally asked. With a sigh, Williams exclaimed “The Hallowed Marauders are an elite group of soldiers that hunt down anybody who makes them mad. The commander, Alexei Trojenai, is the-” Williams was stopped by Catharine. “Alexei! He was the commander of a space station which we were sent from to rescue the crew of the Alpha Lima!” She yelled. “We need to find him!” She then shouted. “Calm down, Cath, I guess we could check it out.” Jonas said, giving a hint of sarcasm. “I think we all are going to be o-” Williams said before his torso was pierced by a .308 round. “Williams! Crap!” Jonas yelled as he returned fire. Jonas ran towards a car that had flipped onto its side. He loaded his .308 rifle and found where the assailant was. He saw the assailant reloading his rifle. He was about to grab a communication device but Jonas shot it out of his hand and then shot the man in his torso, too. The man fell down the rocky cliffside, then Jonas ran over to Williams. He then put his finger over Williams neck. “Im afraid he’s dead...” Jonas said, his voice weary with sorrow. Catharine breathed a sigh of relief. She reached in Williams front pocket and found a note saying: Hunt down the one by the name of Tsien. “I was right. He was not here to help us. Lucky us he never got to fulfill his commands.” Catharine said, and breathed another sigh of relief. “Guys, get a move on! We have to go!” Tsien yelled, voice laced with rage but apathy. The group ran towards the mountain, discovering a small door. It opened into a small cave, filled with irradiated water and other waste. They swam through the water, trying not to swallow the water. They finally reached the other side, but then the cave started to shake violently. A huge avalanche of rocks piled behind them, blocking the exit. The dog Damien, was trapped on the other side. “What happened!” Jonas yelled. Catharine was scrambling over the rocks, trying to find a space they could squeeze through. “There’s no exit. We have to keep going forward.” Tsien said, gesturing at the tunnel ahead. “What’s that?” Marth said curiously. A crab-like creature was walking on two appendages towards them. Its carapace had 4 small arms, most likely used to get food into its mouth. Two arms were extended from its body, with two crab-like claws on their ends. Its shell seemed resilient against most damage, but its face seemed penetrable. It seemed to have bad intentions, so Jonas decided to shoot it. It fell over, and seemed to be dead. Jonas went up to it to see if it was dead. “Yup...wait.” Jonas said, then shot it again. “Yup. Now its dead.” he said, and then smirked. The group moved on into the cave.

Research Notes: Post-Apocalyptic Creatures

My name is Doctor Lesko. This is journal #1 for my research of the diverse wildlife existent after post-nuclear disasters. Entry 1: Mutated Horseshoe Crab: These are a fierce and heavily adapted species based from the Horseshoe Crab native to this area. The radiation appears to have caused multiple mutations, such as a hardened carapace and a larger size. They also have developed incredibly sharp pincers that are incredibly dangerous against an average human. I also have discovered that they lay eggs! Entry 2: Mutated Black Bear: I have discovered and observed these creatures from long distances, and found that they are mutated black bears native to the Washington area. They have developed a severe skin condition, and have become incredibly aggressive. They only are neutral towards members of their species, and will attack anything other then black bears. They also have a gland that delivers a large amount of taurine and adrenaline to their muscular systems when in combat. Entry 3: Mutated Dog: As the radiation affected dogs more then most of the other creatures, they aren't mans best friend anymore. They have developed a more firm skeletal structure and a higher breathing capacity then other land mammals. I have also observed them sprinting at speeds at a stunning 70 mph! They also have developed more pointed teeth and sharper claws, and eyesight also has been improved. End of journal #1

Chapter 21: Subterranean Horrors

The tunnel seemed endless, until they found their selfs in a large chamber, filled with odd eggs. “These eggs...they have they same pigment as that creature we encountered earlier.” Marth said, poking at it. The egg twitched a bit, but it didn’t hatch. Marth decided to shoot the egg and found that there was a baby inside it. “You know, it couldn’t hurt to give this species a name.” Tsien said. Catharine gasped with discovery and said: “How about Reaver?” “That would work, but they look similar to.. thats it! Its a mutated horseshoe crab!” Tsien exclaimed. After their fiasco, a Reaver surfaced on the water, but this one was different. It had a rust colored carapace, and it was larger then the pale, white ones. Jonas started shooting at it. The first few rounds missed, then one pierced its face. It fell over and died, floating on the water. Marth quickly gestured at the land on the other side and lunged into the water. The group swam as fast as they could through the water, and eventually got to the other side. They sprinted through the tunnels and suddenly found their selfs crossing over into a tunnel made by steel. Dead Reaver body’s littered the ground, with a few men lying on the ground dead. They proceeded down the eerie tunnel, frightened by the remains of the massacre. They found a door that was made of a rough but resilient steel. It opened when Marth punched the button, which activated the door. It opened them into a large room. A musky and horrible smell entered their nostrils, and Catharine cringed at the smell. They proceeded again through the chamber, and found that there was a huge gaping hole to their right. It led into a sewer, large enough to fit a truck in, with room to spare for two cars. They entered it, and discovered  that the horrible smell came from the sewer. They also discovered that this had been a standoff between some soldiers and the creatures they named Reavers. They carried on through the sewer, enduring the smell as much as they could. Catharine looked like she would throw up soon. There was a drainage pipe at the end of the tunnel, which they embraced. They appeared to be in the D.C. area, near a dock. The scrambled up the rocky shore, and a lady started walking towards them. She wore ragged beige pants with a white tank top. “What’re you all doing here?” She said, with a southern accent. Marth finally got up the slope, his face was red with embarrassment. “Sorry I was late.” He said shyly. “We escaped from the sewers, which were infested with mutated horseshoe crabs.” Jonas quickly responded, ignoring Marth’s rather dramatic entrance. “Well, I should be on mah way. See y’all later!” She said. “Her accent is funny.” Marth snorted, laughing childishly. They rounded around a small bait shack and followed a worn road, damaged by nuclear fire and the lack of repair. They ended up on a bridge, which led to a memorial. Catharine went up to a plaque below the statue. The memorials plaque said: This plaque is in the memory of the troops we lost in the war with the Chinese Communists. These. The rest of the plaque was torn with damage. Catharine gave a approving nod and sprinted towards the rest of the group. “Where’d you go?” Tsien asked. “Oh... I was reading the plaque on the memorial.” Catharine responded. “Oh.” Tsien said. The sun was nearly in the middle of the sky, marking that it was in the afternoon. Tsien got into the baggage they had and brought out some expired granola bars and purified water. Everybody gulped down their water and ate their food quickly. They all were sitting around the memorial. The river not to far away from them was glinting, it seemed so pretty, aside the fact it was irradiated. They could see the Washington Monument. It was crumbling, but it stood tall and proud. They all got up finally, and Marth groaned. Catharine came up with a evil idea. “Hey Marth, there’s another granola bar over by the river!” She said sweetly. He went over to the river, then Catharine quickly ran up to him and pushed him into the water. He came to the surface after a few seconds and gasped. “What was that for?!” He yelled. Catharine laughed and pulled him back onto the concrete. Marth laughed, then he found a place to dry off at. For once, everybody was laughing at one another. Soon, the time had come to get up and leave.

Chapter 22: Through D.C.

They had finally crossed the bridge, after taking a long deserved break. The group had arrived in downtown D.C., which had been hit by a nuclear warhead, since the White House and many other important locations were here. They had planned on going through D.C. and go through the Presidential Metro. They expected this would be a harsh journey, because they heard rumors of the city being overrun by mutated people. They were in a post-war version of a metropolitan area in the D.C. area. Billboards displaying advertisements of food, new phones and latest cars had fell to the ground. Buildings that had once sold food and books were utterly destroyed, with books littering the inside of the store, and shelves were lying on the ground. Cars were to be littered everywhere, trashing the streets, even crashed into buildings. Marth looked around, amazed at how humanity had destroyed itself. “You’d think that something would restrain us from this, but look at this. This is outrageous! “ He said, eyes wide in awe. A car was on fire, maybe because of the metal being irradiated, but there was a risk of it exploding. “Duck and cover!” Tsien yelled. Everyone ran into a building and took cover behind a number of different things. The car exploded, causing all of the other cars to explode in synchrony. Parts of the cars flew everywhere, a tire had accidentally hit Catharine in her chest. It knocked her off her feet, causing her to hit her head on a cupboard. “Ow!” She scrambled onto her feet and shoved the tire off of her. The rest of the group ran towards her. “That was very painful. Let’s get going. As they scrambled over the car wreckage, a man lowered his gun at Catharine’s head.

Chapter 23: Ravaged

He fired. Jonas threw up a piece of metal and the bullet glanced off it. Jonas ran towards the man and lunged at him with a knife drawn. Instantly, there was a struggle of survival between the two. The man tried to grab Jonas’s knife, but he was quick to raise his arm. Jonas kicked the mans head and raised the knife to his neck. The man was stiff as a rock. Jonas slid the knife across the mans neck, ending the struggle. The man was limp, and his face turned pale with fear. Jonas shrugged the man off of his body, and got up. “Whew, that was close.” He said, breathing heavily. Catharine held a pipe up, her hand was grasping it tightly. “It’s okay, don’t worry.” Marth said, taking the pipe from her hands. He dropped it on the ground. Gunfire could be heard to the north. “What’s going on?” Tsien said, curious. They turned towards the sound to see a group of men attacking some mutants. “Let’s go check it out, something is wrong here.” Tsien commanded, his voice revealed his fear. Jonas nudged Tsien lightly and said: “Stop being such a baby. You think everything is too dangerous.” He said, grinning sarcastically. They marched on towards the battle, being cautious. A stale wind swept through the street, dragging papers, long forgotten by the people that had dropped them. The city was a pale grey, no longer filled with the neon lights and bright billboards that had colored the city. As the group progressed on, the smell of death and anger were in the air. As they reached the battleground, bodies lay everywhere. Marth cringed at the smell of the blood. “My god... what happened here...” Catharine said, her voice shaking with fear. The wind, blowing through destroyed cars and desolated buildings, had made a desperate howl, carrying its cry through the street. The group gingerly walked over the body’s, resisting the urge to throw up. They stumbled upon a destroyed escalator staircase, which descended down into a metro tunnel. “We have no other choice but to go through here. The fighting caused a building to collapse, blocking our way. If we want to progress, we need to go through the Presidential Metro.” Tsien said. “But won’t it be dangerous? It could be guarded!” Marth argued. “Then we can fight our way in. It will be easy. A computer must control all those robots, so we could hack it and shut all of them down.” Tsien countered. After thinking for a moment, Marth decided to go with his plan. “I guess it could work.” He said, shrugging gingerly. “I don’t think this will be hard...” Jonas said dubiously. Moments later, they started to descend the escalator. Marth jerked open the metro gate, breaking the well-rusted chain keeping it closed. Tsien took one last glimpse at the outside.

Chapter 24: Presidential Metro

The entrance was pretty much intact. A ticket counter to the left was unmanned, with a terminal that had a destroyed screen. Three bench’s to the left were intact, but the metal was rusted and was worn with age. A door leading to the metro trains was at least 10 feet away from them. “Im surprised. This place is still intact?” Marth said. A pounding noise was emerging from the door near the ticket counter. “Shh... its a metro security robot.” Tsien said. They sneaked towards the door, with their guns aimed at it. The door opened, and a robot emerged from it. “Security breach in sector 1-” It didn’t finish its sentence, Marth had shot it in its head. The robot sparkled with electricity, then fell to the ground with a loud clank. A key was on the ground near it. Tsien grasped the keycard, then went over to the metro access door. He inserted it into the slot, then it was ejected. A green light lit up, and the door slid open smoothly. They stepped in, but found something amazing. Robots littered the ground. It was obvious their batteries had ran out. A metro train was 5 feet away from them. A generator far to their left had a light next to them. It must be the power level indicator, Tsien thought to his self. It was 3/4th’s full. “I think the metro train will work!” Marth said, excited. They all scrambled onto the train. Everyone sat down in worn seats. Tsien got up and pushed a button labeled: Activate Train. The train rumbled, then shook as it sped forward. Robots were patrolling to their right, turning towards the tram as they tried to shoot at it. Marth cheered and then closed the window. The tram ascended onto the surface, the light blinded the group. The tram finally halted to a stop, then the group hopped out of the tram. A sign near them read: Fort Adams: Excelling in Biological Studies since 2077. A man wearing a lab coat, covered in blood, ran towards them. “Oh god! Oh god! They nearly got me!” He yelled. A I.D. on his coat read Frank Brown. “Who are you?” Tsien asked. “Im Frank Brown. I got a Ph.D in science and biology to work here, I had dreamed to work here. They assigned me to the Biological Weapons lab. Then, the creatures made for battle, escaped. My fellow colleagues were slaughtered by them, but I got away.” He held up a .44 magnum, also covered with blood. “We need to go through the Biological Experiments lab to get to a great base named Eagle Old Olney.” Tsien said. Franks eye’s widened, then he said: “Thats impossible! Those experiments are dangerous!” He shrieked. “Not for us.” Jonas said, then he brought out a 12 gauge shotgun. He grinned at Frank, who was shaking in fear. They continued across the courtyard to the Reception Area.

The place was worse then Hell. Blood was splattered all over the walls, and bodies littered the floor. Catharine’s eye’s were wide as a dinner plate. It was obvious she was frightened of the gore displayed in the room. “God...this is... this is unreal. This isn’t murder. Its slaughter. This is scary, and too horrible to actually be real.” Marth whispered. Tsien seemed to be curious about the front desk, so he walked towards it. A note, crumpled up and worn with age, was on the front desk, near a computer. It read:

Tsien was reading it aloud to the others. Finally, he had finished reading. “Janice must have gotten killed.” Frank sighed. They approached the elevator and inserted her I.D. and waited for a result. A light flashed green and the door to the elevator had slid open. The interior was very clean, made out of beautiful marble. They pushed a button which indicated the lowest floor, the Biological Research lab. They felt the elevator jerk as they descended into Hell itself.

Chapter 25: Silent Death

The elevator door opened, and Jonas had his gun ready. The first thing they noticed was the smell. A rusty smell lingered in the air, making everybody cringe. Blood was splattered in every possible place, with bodies accompanying the horror. A human, walking on all fours, turned towards them. Its face was covered in blood. Jonas pointed the gun at the creature and killed it. “That thing was classified as a troglodyte. It was created in large numbers and mass produced. They turned into cannibals, and escaped. Their fingernails were adapted to cut through steel, amazing the scientists. They were only the foot soldiers in the destructive army we had created.” Frank exclaimed. A pipe fell from the ceiling, startling Tsien. Water flowed from the pipes, drenching Tsien in dirty water. A mutant was crawling across the pipes, scooping the water the best it could into its mouth. It turned towards Marth, and snarled. It lunged from the ceiling towards Marth, but Jonas shot it in the chest. The creature, twitching in pain, finally stopped moving. Three doors in front of them led to different locations. One read: Armory, the next; Lab Workers Dormitories and the last was Biological Experimentation Labs. “Where should we go? It seems logical to visit the Armory.” Marth said, eager to find more weapons. Jonas was also giddy too, anxious to go and explore the Armory. “Frank, Catharine and Tsien. Wait here, were going to grab some things from the Armory.” Marth commanded. Tsien nodded his head obediently. Jonas and Marth stepped through the door.

Jonas was disappointed that the Armory wasn’t as enormous as he expected, but the weapons here weren’t a joke. A rack held 3 A-21 Gauss Rifles, and 3 Armed Forces Tesla Pistols. To their right, a rack of random weapons of no use were blandly hanging there, just begging to be looted. Marth snorted and jammed the Tesla and Gauss weapons, plus a pair of goggles that appeared to work as well as the Hubble Telescope, into his backpack. He groaned and then said: “Argh...so heavy... I think-” Marth collapsed. Jonas tossed aside 2 of the weapons and grabbed a set of two. Marth scrambled to his feet, panting for breath. “Don’t act like such a baby.” Jonas said, snorting. “Ha ha. Very funny.” Marth yelled. A bang on the door signaled that the rest of the group were getting really impatient. Jonas and Marth stepped out of the door, flashing their new guns. “Ugh, you two with your guns!” Catharine sighed, shrugging her shoulders. Marth laughed and waved his Gauss Rifle in the air. “You people are fools... laughing around here?!” Frank shouted. Everyone turned towards him, surprised with his uproar. “This place...” He panted. “Is filled with MY colleagues” He started to sob.” who were slaughtered by these abominations of science!” He slurred, his voice draining out his sorrow, fear, anger and so much more. He broke down in a corner, he was so hurt by this. Occasionally he would mention “Im sorry Renee!” and “Its all my fault!”. He eventually emerged from the dark depression that had surrounded him. He gestured towards his eye and wiped off any remaining tears. “Sorry... Im really sorry...” Frank sighed, his face red with embarrassment. He pointed at the door near them, but to their surprise, and horror, a mutant emerged. Its skin was flaking off, and the skin was tight against its body, revealing its bone structure. Its face was disfigured, one eye lower then the other. Its clothing, torn and stained, appeared to be the remnants of a lab coat. It lunged and pounced on Catharine. She tried pushing it off, but to her shock, it was kicked into the wall. Jonas pinned it to the wall using his foot, then shot it in its head. To her surprise, she found that this creature had an abnormal rad amount. “This thing... it has an abnormal amount of radiation... it should not have lived. There’s something fishy about this...” Catharine said, curiously. Frank, who was cowering in the corner of the room, seemed really nervous about something. Marth walked over to him, staring at him. “What’s wro-” Marth attempted to say. Frank hurriedly interrupted him. “Nothing! I mean... nothing.” He exclaimed, his quick response made Marth more suspicious. “There’s something you know that we don’t. Tell us.” Marth commanded. “Its too... horrifying... for you to know.” He said, in a sudden serious voice. Marth leaned against the wall, while hitting a pipe gently on his hand, displaying obvious threats. “The Sigma Evolution Virus. The government started to secretly develop an idea, a organism that invades the enemy’s homeland and mass-reproduce and completely ravage the country. The experiment was to see if anything happened by injecting them with a chemical compound, a stem cell, but they modified it so that it became a stimulant, almost like steroids, but to boost the strength permanently, but the results weren’t pretty. The guy they used, named Jones Deven, was a meager street cleaner that worked night shifts, was abducted off the streets. They put him in restraints in a level III Containment area. They had filled a needle with the SEV, then injected it into the man through the neck. He was then quickly brought into a prison, filthy and unsuitable for any living thing, and it started to happen. He had around 59 seizures that night, resulting at the date and time of 7:06, July 28th, 2067, to create a monster. It had deformed limbs, one was bigger then the other and such, and its torso was enlarged, almost 5 feet out. It turned out this was just a stage in the process of degeneration. Soon enough, 3 days later, its skin started to flake, and it produced some of the most horrifying and haunting noises, a abomination to nature. Its size soon decreased, and it seemed that the scientists were having a fiasco over this. It soon became asexual and reproduced around 4 “children” that day. Soon, the creature became what you just saw. The children also went through that stage. But, when the bomb’s fell, the radiation activated another process, making their cellular structures more resilient, so it could, by an accurate estimate, live around 684 years.” He explained, shuttering every few seconds. To Tsien, that was a really big speech for someone this quiet. They decided to go through the door to the Biological Experiment Lab, with horrors awaiting them.

Chapter 26: Feral Creature

They were in a lab, it was not that big, it was only 10 feet by 20 feet, with the ceiling only 20 feet high. The hallway leading to the room was 7 feet long, the exit was 7 feet long too. Table’s were toppled over, with many of the computers destroyed. A computer that had not been destroyed was on a table that was tipped over. It seemed someone was in the process of writing a lab report. “Hey, Frank, look at this. I think someone was writing some report on the SEV, I’m going to go take a look.” Tsien said, walking over the computer. He scrolled to the top, then he was startled by Catharine, Marth and Frank looking over his shoulder. Grumbling, Tsien again scroll to the top. Then he started to read the report aloud to the rest of the group.

Tsien examined the blood on the terminals display screen. It was dried up, with the color of a unappetizing dark reddish-brown. He assumed they killed her before she got the chance to send it to her friend. “So thats what the compound was!” Frank said, scolding his self for something he thought was obvious. Tsien had got a notepad and a worn pencil off of a table and copied down most of the info. They departed towards the next area. The door seemed to be pressure locked, so it must be a secure door. A keypad was to the right of the door, Marth put in the card, causing the light to flash green, then a satisfying hiss filled the air. The door lifted and revealed a staircase. Skeletons littered the staircase, accompanied by blood. Papers also were scattered around the stairs. The group scrambled over the mess, cringing at the blood everywhere. A intact body clenched a vial, with a bright cyan liquid inside of it. The man wore a lab coat, which was in shreds, a pair of jeans, which were worn, and his face was paused in shock. Tsien knelt down, and picked up the liquid, stirring it around a little. He rotated the bottle around and noticed a warning label on the side of the vial. He started to read it in his head:

Warning: This vial contains a dangerous chemical, and should only be handled by trained scientists and authorized personnel. Contains: CEP, Steroid-823. This vial and chemical is owned by Fort Adams Biology Labs. If this vial is found outside the laboratory or in the possession of any unauthorized personnel, it is to be taken and the offender will be charged with 8 years in prison.

He decided to not heed the instructions on the vial, and he stuffed it into the heavy backpack. While he had been reading the label, the rest of the group had gone ahead. Tsien sprinted up the stairs and rounded the corner to find his friends were attempting to hack a computer. Tsien walked towards the group, motioning for them to move out of the way. He noticed they had tried about 5 times to hack it. He typed in the word “CEPS823”. The door pulled open, again with the characteristic hissing noise. The room was abnormally cold, icicles decorated every pipe in the room. Catharine shivered, and pulled her hands into the sleeves of her shirt. It seemed when some of the reports of the nuclear threats had arrived here, people must have thought the colder the air, the less radiation can pass through there. “Im c-c-cold.” Marth complained. Tsien sighed and turned to Marth. “Get over it... up there,” He said, pointing to the ceiling.” it never gets cold.” Tsien exclaimed. “Whatever...” Marth responded. It seemed they had stumbled upon a cryogenic laboratory. A wall that had been destroyed had ice thick over the hole, blocking whatever lay behind it. A door was left wide open, a man was standing in there, stiff as a rock. A clipboard by the door read: Test Subject I.D.: #843. Code Name: Envy. The man was dead, he had froze to death. He must have been an SEV test subject. They continued through a doorway, back into the warmth. They found another door, but it lead to a metro tunnel. They found the metro to Old Olney.

Chapter 27: Tales of the Fallen

The gate opened smoothly, and they were back outside, in the ravaged wasteland. They were in a open field, a old farm nearby was devoid of any life. The wind was in the air, its eerie tune carried through the wastes, bringing sounds of sorrow to the quiet world. The farm seemed to be a promising place to find food. Marth licked his lips at the thought. “We should check out the farm, we haven’t had any food in days, and I think after all this, we need to rest.” Marth suggested. “Yes, I think thats a good idea.” Frank said, praising Marth. They all strode towards the farm, hoping to find some sustenance. The farm consisted of a water silo, a grain silo and a house. When they got there, they found that there was nothing remaining inside of it. They all moaned, wanting food. A road lead away from the farm, curving its way off into the distance. The wind whistled through the dead tree’s, singing its eerie cries. A shot rang out in the distance, revealing a struggle. Around 20 feet away, a man was dropping the gun, maybe he had ran out of ammo? His opponent, a mutated rat-like thing, the size of an Greyhound, was trying to kill him. He struck the creature with a tire iron, hopelessly losing. The creature lunged for his neck, and bit down on his throat. He kept hitting it for a few seconds until, finally, he fell limp. Jonas face was pulled together in a expression of disgust. He pulled out a rifle and shot at the thing. It stiffened, and fell limp and died. “Disgusting how these creature’s adjusted to this... this barbaric adaptation!” Carter said, cringing. “There’s more then this.” Jonas said. “There’s the areas mutated black bears, the government tricking people into coming to their pick up trucks with purified water, then dragging them away to their labs for experiments. There’s the Raiders, barbaric people who have lost all morals and enjoy making everyones lives miserable. Slavers, who go and drag people from their settlements and turn them into slaves, acting as battery’s, when they run out of power, they’re tossed away.” Jonas exclaimed gravely. They started to walk through the barren landscape, towards a town with odd metal pillars sticking out of the ground. As they got closer, Catharine cringed. Dismembered bodies hung from the pillars, with small dolls hanging from the bodies.

Chapter 28: Behemoths

As they approached the town ever further, they were forced to go into skulking. Tall, dark tan skinned creatures were positioned in makeshift watchtowers around the ravaged town. They were incredibly muscular, holding home-made weapons, appearing to weigh 100’s of pounds. A man was running away, with two of them chasing him. They were slightly smaller, and less muscular then the other ones. They both held boards with nails sticking out. The man tripped over a fallen telephone pole and tried to scramble back onto his feet. One of the mutants put down their board and grabbed the man by his neck. He slammed him into a wall, and the mans neck was snapped. He fell limp, and the mutant tossed him away, much like a used napkin. One, speaking hoarsely, started to talk. “We need... more humans. More of us is better!” It said, obviously lacking proper grammar. “You shut up, stupid! I know we need people for us!” The other responded, scolding the other. A larger one, just like the ones on the watchtowers, was walking towards him. “What he do? Why he dead?” He interrogated. “He try run away, we kill him.” The smaller one said, obviously of some type of lower rank. “You idiot!” The large one said, and slammed a giant club into them. They both crashed against the wall, spilling blood down it. “What on Earth are those creatures?!” Carter said, eyes widening in horror. “Behemoths, mutated people exposed to a special type of radiation.” Jonas responded. Tsien asked a fairly creative question. “How many types are there out there?” He asked, curiously. “There’s the smaller ones, Safer Behemoths, next in ranking is the Behemoth Brutes. Then, even larger then those, and equally rarer, are Behemoth Overlords. But... there’s only one of this kind, called The Wiser Behemoth, who commands over them. He lives in a vault, corroded with that special type of radiation, where they turn people into their kind. He’s been rumored to have an I.Q. of 197, hence the name “Wiser". Jonas exclaimed. Tsien nodded his head. “Thats very interesting...” He said. “Its best we avoid the town, its not worth saving the slaves they have “stocked up” there.” Jonas recommended. “Well, these are human lives were talking about here!” Catharine said, but then seemed to have gotten an idea. “What if you guys just waited back here, and I can sneak into there and rescue them.” Catharine suggested. “Its a good idea, but what if you get caught? We wont be able to come and get you back, they will just kill you!” Jonas retorted. “Give me a few weapons, a coil of rope and some piece of metal that might work as a grapple, and Im ready to go.” She said. “You must be crazy, but I guess we can count on you.” Jonas said, pulling a 10mm Pistol, with a silencer on it. He handed it to Catharine, then pulled out a fairly long coil of rope, and tied a piece of curved metal to the end. Catharine took the coil of rope and put it on horizontally across her chest. “Wish me luck.” She said, then ran towards the city.

Chapter 29: Infiltration

She crawled under a destroyed wall, just barely squeezing through. Two of the smaller Behemoths, not too far ahead, just 10 feet down the street, were dragging a person by his arms. He flailed, trying to escape their grasp. Catharine decided to ignore the situation and skulked along the side of the building. She cautiously crouched through a doorway, giving as much perception as she could to her surroundings. Something in the corner shuffled, immediately drawing the muzzle of her gun towards it. A man was chained to the wall, but appeared very elderly. He must have been here for a long time. “C-come closer...” He said, his voice cracking with every word. Catharine walked towards him. “Please, unlock the chains... I’d like to live away from here.” He said, eyes pleading. She shot the lock off of the wall, and to her surprise, the man bolted for the door. As he got farther away, he waved at her and became out of visibility, blending into the horizon. She felt gratitude towards the man, for he had endured the worst of torture. She skulked towards a destroyed brick wall, and found herself face-to-face with a skeleton. She cringed in horror, and backed away. She barely could keep herself from yelling out in horror. She backed through a doorway, into a apartment building. Bodies of Behemoths were scattered on the floor, and around 10 slaves counting were dead, holding sharpened pieces of telephone poles. It seemed obvious that there had been a revolt. She continued up the staircase, finding more and more bodies everywhere. Eventually, she reached the rooftop, and found a Behemoth Overlord, laying dead on the rooftop, with sharpened poles sticking out of him. Blood covered the rooftop, not one spot was the black color of tarmac. She clambered down the fire escape staircase on the side of the building, and found she was near the mayors office. Two Behemoth Brutes were pacing around in front of it, holding heavy javelins, constructed from a telephone pole that probably had been pulled from the ground. She paused and sat down, coming up with a plan. She started to think to herself. “I will fire at the nearby building 10 feet away from me, alerting the guards. As they turn towards the sound, I will sprint towards the old book store just 27 feet from the staircase leading to the mayors office.” She thought it over for a bit, then decided it will work. She quickly pulled out the gun, and shot at the building. Alarmed by the intruding noise, the mutants turned towards the sound. She started to sprint for the bookstore, running as fast as she could. She dove into the store, through a broken window. A bookcase was not to far from her, so she decided to hide behind it. She pulled back a few burned books, revealing a viewpoint in which she could observe the guards. She waited, even for 30 minutes, then knew how the guards paced. One, after 7 minutes, would go into a building, while the other slept. She waited, until they both became too distracted for their own good. She ran up the steps of the building, and bolted through the doorway. She was in a fairly small room, 25 feet by 30 feet. A staircase led up to the mayors office, and many other doors on this floor were boarded up. As usual, the scenery was gory, showing the violent intentions of the mutants. She bolted up the steps, and found a slave with her hands tied around her back. Her clothes were ragged, crusted with blood also. She looked up at Catharine, as if she felt that she was dreaming. Catharine walked slowly towards her. She looked down again, then started to speak. “Please, liberate me from the slavery that they have bestowed on me.” She pleaded, turning her head towards Catharine. “Yes, I guess I can...” Catharine responded, and cut the ropes imprisoning her hands. The ropes had dug into her hands, and it was obvious she had suffered much torment in her captivity. She got up slowly, eventually rising to her feet. She was the average height, around 6.3 feet, and she had brown colored hair. “Thank you...” She said, her voice expressing much gratitude. “Come on, we need to leave.” Catharine said, then she broke a window to the south, then hooked the grapple to a hole in the brick wall. She tossed the rest of the rope out the window. “My names Amanda, by the way.” She said, then gingerly climbed down the rope. Catharine followed after her, then escaped by climbing over a fence. She ran around the building, back to the rest of the team was positioned. Carter, Jonas and Tsien waved at Catharine, but had a curious look on their face’s. “Who’s that?” Jonas asked. “Oh, this is Amanda, a slave that was being held in the mayors office. I went inside and rescued her.” Catharine exclaimed. “Oh, okay then.” Jonas responded. “Lets go, we should keep our distance, they might notice that she’s gone.” Carter said, and they sprinted off in the distance.

Chapter 30: Alice in Post-Apocalyptia

The group was heading towards a distant water tower when a thunderous boom sounded overhead. Without seeing the source of the noise, they kept walking. The road they were walking on soon became elevated, going onto a highway labeled “Route 6”. A small lake was positioned below them, they could look through the huge holes in the highway. They carefully took their steps, careful not to accidentally destroy part of the road. At the midpoint in the arch, they could see across the entire wasteland. It was desolated, just a plain, dull and disgusting brown. The horizon darkened as the night came upon the Capital Wasteland. As the blanket of stars were revealed in the sky, there was so many things they could see. As a child, Marth could never see what he could now, with the light pollution that plagued his urban city of New York. He could see nebulae, stars and even the edge of the galaxy. They went towards an old freight truck and slept inside of the back.

Many hours later, everyone had gotten up, and moved down the bridge. They eventually reached the end of the highway, piled up with old cars. They scrambled over the ruined cars and back onto the dried, burnt grassy plains. The smell of smoke lingered in the air, bringing about a horrible stench. They noticed some junkie camping out in a large space in the bridge’ structure. He gestured towards them. “Hey...uh...hey! Want some chems?” He said, obviously he had been “sampling” some of his own products. “No thanks, we aren’t junkies.” Marth said. “Okay then, more for me.” He said, and walked back into his shelter. They walked along a large crater, where ruins of a building were scattered across the perimeter of the crater. A few filing cabinets were sticking from the ground, along with a few broken chairs and destroyed terminals. The crater soon was behind them, as they were giddy to find somewhere to camp. The sun lingered on the horizon, ready to plunge the Wasteland into darkness. They noticed a gas station was not to far from them. “That gas station looks stable enough for us to sleep in.” Catharine said, pointing at the dark shape ahead. “Good thinking, Catharine. Amanda looks very sick.” Carter commented. Frank seemed alienated from the rest of the group. “I hate the girl Catharine. She so saccharine about what we do... I just hate it.” Frank thought to his self, annoyed. They arrived at the seemingly moored gas station. Carter skulked around the perimeter of the gas station, checking for any residents. He failed to find any, and rounded back to the front. They entered the building, and it was virtually pristine. The front counter was lined with bubblegum and candy, lottery tickets were lined up in the back. Some food and beverages lay dormant inside refrigerators. It seemed like it would be a good place to rest. Amanda collapsed on the ground, cringing in pain. Frank rushed over to the pale girl and put his hand to her forehead. He pulled his hand back quickly, and turned towards the rest of the group. “She has an extreme fever...” He turned around and brought out a thermometer. He pressed it into her mouth and brought it out a few seconds later. The liquid inside the thermometer had rose to a mark that read 106˚F. “She is going to die tonight... I’m sorry.” He said remorsefully. They all set up large cloth sheets and slept.

Chapter 31: A Hot Funeral

They all had woken up around 9:23 A.M., and scrambled over to where Amanda had slept. Frank materialized in front of Amanda and put his hand over her neck. His face went pale, and he turned around sadly to the others. “She’s dead.” He said monotonically. Catharine tried to keep a straight face, but ultimately failed. She held her hands to her face and burst into tears. She walked away from the rest of them and skulked into the bathroom. “My god... I can’t believe she died... its a shame, too, as she was so young.” Jonas said sadly.

A few minutes later, using the butt of Jonas’ rifle, they buried the poor girl and walked away from the buried girl. They progressed into the Wastelands mountainous area, with towering mountains and a rocky terrain. A enormous group of ants skulked around a hole in the ground, apparently it was a hive. They turned towards the group and skittered towards them. Jonas pulled a .44 pistol from his belt and fired at the ants. They dropped to the ground, spilling greenish blood onto the ground. They continued to trek along the rocky landscape. The rocky mountain seemed to stretch on forever. Progressing, roughly north, the sun started to hide behind the mountains, like a shy diplomat. Marth yawned, raising his hand to his mouth. Catharine rubbed her eyes sleepily, and yawned. A small settlement to the east got Tsien's attention. "Hey, I see a settlement roughly to the east. Come on, guys, just a bit longer and then we can sleep." He said encouragingly. They soon arrived to the settlement, being greeted kindly by, apparently, the town sheriff and a roughly 30 year old woman. The sheriff wore a worn trench coat, with a badly stitched on to it. The man definitely had the Calamity Jones look about him. The woman wore a home made dress, colored a rough purple. "Hey! Welcome to Grayditch!" The sheriff welcomed, and then held out his hand. Tsien reached out and shook it, and smiled at the sheriff. "Im Sheriff Burkes, and that girl is the mayor, Kathie Arlington." He exclaimed. He wove his hands and pointed at the gate. A man wearing a piece of leather armor pulled on a lever, and the gate shook open. Tents were on the ground, and the saloon, sheriffs office, store and mayors office were on raised platforms. Tsien led the rest of the group forward towards a metal building. As they entered, they were greeted by a waitress. "Welcome to the Cats Eye! Do you want to buy a room, or are you hungry?" She asked. "I want a room for me and six others, please." Tsien politely requested. She smiled. "Of course. Thats going to cost 700 dollars." She responded. Marth dug through the back pack and pulled out all of the money he could find. "Umm... we only have 500..." Marth shyly commented. "That could work, but only if you killed a criminal named Jack the Ripper." She said, and then shivered. Tsien nodded. "I guess..." He agreed. "I think I'll go and kill him." Marth bravely offered. "Thats pretty brave of you, but are you really sure? Its a bad idea to do things alone." Catharine cautioned. "Its okay, don't worry." Marth said snidely. The waitress interrupted the conversation. "Rumor is that he lives somewhere to the north. Be careful, he is very dangerous and probably set traps around the entrance." She warned. Marth walked towards the exit and left Grayditch in search of the killer.

Chapter 32: The Search Begins

Marth set off towards a large mesa to the west. The mesa was surrounded by piles of rocks and a tall peak about 100 feet high had a very steep precipice. Marth clambered up the mesa, and a rock caught his eye. It wasn't coherent with the pattern and shapes of the other rocks. He grasped the heavy rock firmly, and moved it away. A dusty, wooden staircase led down into a lit passageway. Marth gently walked down the stairs, as they appeared to be old and weak. The staircase looked like it had been dug into a sewer. Torches hung from the walls, giving a dark and mysterious appearance to the tunnels. Marth walked down the sewer tunnel until he reached a large wooden door that had been roughly installed into the wall. He shrugged it open, and found a man sleeping in a clean pre-War bed, unaware of his intrusion. Marth assumed the man was the criminal, so he reached for his pistol and shot the man. His sheets instantly became soaked in his blood. Marth then sprinted out the door and back through the tunnels. He stormed up the staircase and ran back towards Grayditch. As he walked back to Grayditch, the sun seemed to lower behind the mountains, creating long shadows around him. Dubiously, he thought something was following him and turned around. All he could see was the mountains behind him. He could see Grayditch on the horizon, and hurried towards it. He reached the gates, and found the Mayors body covered in blood and perforated with bullets. He gasped. He ran in, H&K FNL drawn, and saw Raiders executing the citizens. Catharine, Tsien, Jonas and Frank were attempting to fend off the Raiders. He launched a barrage of bullets at a sniper. The sniper fell from his position and smashed his head on a steel rod. Marth continued on with his assault, and found a group of Raiders about to execute a group of children. He ran up behind one, who had a sword, and snapped his neck. Marth snatched the sword from his hands and his sword danced across the two other Raiders chest's, and they fell to the ground, yelling in agony. Blood spilled across the ground. The children scrambled inside of a tent. He jumped down from a ledge and fell behind a brick wall. Tsien and the rest of his friends were shooting at a large group of Raiders with Glock 16s, AK-47Us and an M16. "Marth!" Jonas yelled. "Jonas! What the hell happened!" Marth yelled. "Raiders dug under the city and started an assault on the city. The Sheriff got hit in the knee by a 5.56, so he's in the tent behind us." Jonas exclaimed, while exchanging fire with the Raiders. Marth saw a Raider aiming at Frank, who was scrambling around the barrier, looking for a clip of ammo. Marth shot the Raider in his knee. He fell to the ground in agony. Marth ended the mans pain with a nice slug in his head. It seemed the Raiders had all been defeated, and everybody in the town seemed to be dead or dying. They all ran for the town gate, and left the destroyed city.

Chapter 33: Escape!

They were being chased down by Raiders in jeeps. It seemed the Raiders were surrounding the entrance of the city a bit after the shoot out, checking to see if they had successfully taken the town. M60 rounds perforated the ground around Frank, pressuring him to push his self to the limits. He shot at the Raider who mounted the M60. The Raider was hit square in the head and flew off of the jeep. Frank cheered quietly, and shot the Raider who was driving the car. The jeep hit a rock and flipped over, blowing up. It seemed the two other jeeps diverged and started driving away from them. Frank and his friends fell to the ground in exhaustion and passed out.

Hours later, woke Catharine up on the desert ground. Grains of sand were lodged in Catharine's hair and was accumulating in her shoes. Marth, Jonas and Frank all seemed to have gotten up already, eating and joking around as if there had been no massacre. "Hey..." Catharine groggily said, rubbing her eyes. "Hey there sleepyhead!" Marth said, and smiled kindly. Tsien pulled a box of Salisbury Steak, and started to cook it over a fire. "Can I have some of that?" Catharine asked. "Of course you can! No need to ask." Tsien exclaimed. "Thanks." Catharine politely responded. A few minutes later, her steak had been cooked. She ate the steak quickly, savoring the taste. Williams, Carter and Frank were up, too. They were talking to each other on top of a large rock. "Hey!" "Finally your up!" "Jeez, you were out for awhile!" The trio yelled to her, respectively. She got up and looked at the sky. The sun was high in the sky. Clouds could be seen in the distance, glooming over the ground below them. "Looks like its going to rain soon." Carter exclaimed, pointing in the direction of the clouds. They were forced to take cover under a cliff, as the rain was extremely irradiated. After the nuclear bombs exploded, all of the nuclear residue and particles had been evaporated into the sky. After a few days, it all came down in a huge rainstorm, killing off most of the survivors. After the rainstorm, they came out of hiding to see the rocks covered in dew. Everything was covered in dew, giving off a shine in contrast to the bland wasteland. Water dripped furiously from the cliff above them, creating puddles at their feet. They clambered down the rocky cliff and onto the ground. A large patrol of Raiders sprinted towards them. One was armed with a Pancor Jackhammer. The others suddenly dropped dead, and the leader Raider with the Pancor Jackhammer had a large sword sticking out of his chest. The man pulled the sword down his chest and sliced him in half. A man in a robe wielding a large sword was staring at Jonas. "Well, if it isn't my no good husband!" She said, and lunged at him. Jonas strafed to the right and Frank was decapitated. The rest of his group ran behind cover, yelling "Not our problem!". She ran towards Williams and slashed open his chest. He fell to the ground and died. He picked up a large metal pipe and turned towards his wife. Minerva took off her hood. Long, flowing blonde hair spilled down the robe. She had fairly bright blue eyes, and her face was twisted in anger. Minerva sped towards him and sliced open his arm. Blood spilled across him, and Minerva smiled. Just like the happy days. On time in the Wasteland lived a happy couple. Minerva and Jonas were a newly wed couple, embracing each other like any other couple would. But one day, the Talon Company Mercs had shown up to claim debt. "Jonas! Some men are here to see you!" Minerva shouted. Jonas got up from his bed and clambered down the stairs. Men in black business suits with large Glock 18c Ex. Mags. were staring at him. "Wheres our money!" One shouted. "Shit! I forgot!" Jonas thought to his self. "Umm... I don't have the money right now, please come back later." He said, his voice faltering. "Im afraid we have to take you into custody." Reno, the leader, said gravely. "NO!" Minerva shouted. She ran up to them with a kitchen knife and was shot. "MINERVA!!!" Jonas shouted. "Now get the hell in our truck or she is dead for good!" Reno said. He entered the truck and was driven to hell. "But Reno killed you!" Jonas shouted. "Alas, I survived it. You left me for dead. I have come to take retribution." She said. Minerva slashed at his chest, and he barely blocked it. She lunged again, but this time below the waist. He barely jumped over the blade, and knocked her in the chest with the pipe. She cringed, but got up from the ground. Blood spilled from her robe, but she seemed to ignore it. "Kill me. Do it." Minerva commanded. He reluctantly raised his arm. Jonas had to make a decision. He grabbed her blade and plunged it through her chest. Blood spilled across the ground.

She smiled, and fell down the blade. Jonas cringed a bit, but got over his self. Tsien, Marth, Carter and Catharine came out behind a rock. "What was that all about?" They asked curiously. Jonas explained the same story again to them.

After a few hours of walking, A question kept harassing him: "What to do now...". The question was repeated again and again.

Chapter 34: Disciple The remainder of the U.S. Government had become cowards and hid on a large oil tanker in the Atlantic. Eventually, they envisioned a world ruled only by the U.S., and planned on destroying on all non-irradiated creatures. Eventually, using Mark VIII Stag Armor, they began to patrol the ruins of the United Wasteland. They purged every city they came across, destroying hopes for survival. Eventually, a certain group of Wastelanders and astronauts would begin to find something more to their lives than survival.

Chapter 35: Ambush

A suspicious silence hung over the group, and the Wasteland around them. It seemed that time itself had froze. The loud sound of a large helicopter rotor came bursting through the still air. Jonas immediately looked above, and saw a large helicopter descending to the ground in front of them. Soldiers in large, intimidating metal armor leapt out of the small helicopter and it rose beyond their vision. Immediately, they started attacking with very peculiar weapons. One of them appeared to fire a large glob of green plasma. The other one seemed to fire a large metal coated with some flammable material. Jonas quickly dove back and threw a knife towards one of the soldiers. It pierced his helmet and blood erupted from the wound. The other was quickly gunned down by Carter. "Who were those people?" Tsien puzzled. Catharine knelt down next to one of the soldiers and removed his large, bulky armor and revealed a uniform underneath. She went through his pockets and found an I.D.."Mackson, Reilly. Disciple." Catharine read out loud. "Disciple?" Carter asked. "I don't know." Catharine responded. Marth took the I.D. card from Catharine and observed it. Jonas peered over his shoulder and looked at it too. Again, the Wasteland was at the placid state as it was before the ambush.

Chapter 36: Scrutiny

It seemed like they had been walking for days. Carter could not bare the vexed silence that seemed to be teasing him. The sun glared above their heads, much like a hawk eying its prey. They eventually passed by a sign noting that they were leaving Washington. Immediately up ahead, was a large sign giving a friendly welcome to the state of Delaware.

Sometimes it was good to be at the top, President Adam D. Jefferson thought to his self. He commanded a large amount of Disciple troops in the north east area of the United States. Being ranked as Bridgier General, he was among the highest ranking personnel in the area. He sat in his office in Quebec, just near Ungava Bay. He had nearly six-hundred troops, minus the scientists, officers and civilians, in his base. All together he had over one thousand people in The Carater Base of Military and Science. A few months ago he had been told about a large object descending from the sky at a high speed of 80,000 miles per hour. He hadn't payed much contemplation to it until rumors were spreading across the D.C. area that astronauts had returned from their extra-planetary mission to the distant moon of Europa. He had failed to take any precaution to that and, instead, focused on developing more intuitive technology so that he could achieve world domination. Of course, people in the Wasteland thought that President Jefferson was a psychopath who thought that he could become President because of being ranked high enough. Eventually, they'll get what's coming to them. He also had over one hundred I.C.B.M.'s in his possession, and could nuke any locations around the world. He felt obliged to terrorize the Wastelands residents with threats of nuclear devastation, just to see them cower in terror. His plan will soon become complete, and he will be able to throw the Earth out of orbit and cause a catastrophe unlike any other. Delaware was not too large of a state, and it wouldn't take that long to cross it. The state of Delaware was a bit humid, and there weren't many cities here. Marth and his group were walking down a destroyed highway, which appeared to go across the entire state over to Pennsylvania. They could see a large forest, but full of burnt trees instead of large pine trees. Suddenly, helicopters roared overhead and landed in front of them. An Disciple soldier hopped out of one and grabbed Tsien. He dragged him onto the helicopter and flew away. Jonas and Marth shot at the helicopter, but failed to damage it at all. "Damnit! Get back here, you cowards!" Jonas shouted, firing his H&K FNL at it. Marth got a hold of Jonas and tugged the weapon out of his hand. "Stop, stop! Calm down!" Marth commanded. Jonas immediately calmed down. "Where the hell did they go?" Carter asked. "They went..." Catharine said, and then paused to look at a compass. "North east of here. The highway looks like it heads that way too." She said. They sprinted down the highway, running as fast as they could to Pennsylvania.

Chapter 37: Abducted

They had gotten through Delaware in mere hours, and they had arrived in Pennsylvania. Carter was sweating profusely. "The humidity here is unbearable!" He thought to his self. A town before them was in ruins, not one building was intact. It was nearly leveled to the ground. They stepped over the piles of rubble and concrete, eventually getting across the ruins. Another road stretched out into the distance. They walked down the road, but then heard something from behind them. A shadow ran across the road. Again, from behind, they heard the shuffling of feet. Jonas turned to find - nothing. "Whatever you are, show yourself!" Carter commanded. Jonas pulled out his FNL cautiously. A foot suddenly launched in his chest and he was sent flying to the ground. Jonas moaned in pain and got up gingerly. The shadow ran across the road again, but Carter grabbed the man and flung him to the ground. The man was wearing trampy clothing, and appeared to be a mugger. The man's hand darted for a knife at his belt, but Marth went and put a bullet in his head. Catharine pushed the mans body back into the thick forest of dead trees. They progressed along the road. Eventually night came, and the dark cloak of night was thrown over them. Snow suddenly started to fall, but it was not the beautiful white crystals Marth would expect. The snow was dark brown, and it seemed to be heavier then normal snow. "Radioactive snow. It isn't safe to ingest." Jonas commented. They kept walking, but found that the road materialized into a highway leading into mountains. The mountains were topped with irradiated snow and ash. The air started to get more crisp and the temperature lowered as well. A compilation of piercing wind and cold snow had physically crippled them, but they marched on. Out of nowhere, Jonas put his hand out and whispered "Stop." He pointed gingerly to the north. On top of a peak, two men in white-brown suits were perched on top of the mountain. One was holding binoculars, the other holding a sniper rifle, specifically a QBU88. Jonas pulled out his FNL, then screwed a scope on top of it. Then, he attached a silencer to the muzzle of the FNL. Aiming at the two people, he shot both of them in succession.

The spotter fell down the cliff, and as he was trying to grab onto something, he was pierced by a stalagmite and was killed. Catharine's intuition told her that Tsien wasn't telling them something. "I think the Disciple are trying to stop us." Carter suggested. "Tsien must be very important to them." Catharine commented. They progressed down the road, and found that they were entering New York. The smog and greenhouse gases hit them like a sledgehammer. They had never seen or smelt anything like it. Cars were literally everywhere, and the state was incredibly urbanized. Not one patch of nature could be seen anywhere. They walked through the city, literally baffled at the scene painted before them. They found skeletons everywhere they looked, ruined lives through every window. Skyscrapers that might have been hundreds of feet were reduced to nothing. The smell of ash and death still lingered after hundreds of years after the bombs fell. It all was overwhelming for them. A lingering smell started to fill the air. Jonas suddenly recognized that smell. Coma gas. "Run!" Jonas yelled. Suddenly, Encla soldiers materialized from the buildings and from under piles of rubble, surrounding them. "An ambush." Carter said gravely. A man of sufficient military ranking dispersed from a group of the soldiers and gestured towards them. "What are you doing here, filth?" He spat. Carter looked at the man annoyingly. "You guys took off with our friend. So, uh, were here to rescue him. Where is he?" Carter asked. The officer looked at him like an owner towards a disobedient pet. "That is none of your business, and this state is owned by the Disciple. You are trespassing on U.S. government property." He said. Jonas was looking around anxiously, appearing to be trying to find some place to escape to. Catharine was standing idle nearby, looking around at all the soldiers. "Well?" He said frustratingly. "If you'd let us pass, then we could leave "your" state." Jonas said, putting sarcasm in his voice. "Ok, filth, go on ahead. Don't blame us if you get shot up once you get to Quebec... they’ll shoot you up if you go near the Yui Complex" The officer warned. He dispersed, along with the rest of the soldiers. Marth spat in his direction. They had a lead, though. "Quebec, eh?" Carter said curiously. "Isn't Quebec in Canada, near the Vermont border?" Catharine asked. "Yea." Jonas responded.

Chapter 38: In the Heart of the Beast

Tsien woke up in a daze. Looking around quickly, he found that he was locked in a cell. There was an odd blue barrier separating his cell from the hallway. Two men walked up to the barrier and knocked on the metal wall. "Are you okay? Any cuts?" He asked. Tsien nodded. The men swiped a card through a scanner, and the barrier dissolved away. Tsien ran towards them and tried to attack them. One of them pulled out a baton and knocked him in the kneecap. Tsien fell to the ground in pain. The other man, dressed in medical scrubs, pulled out a pair of hand cuffs and secured them around his wrists. They escorted him through a pressure-locked door and into another room, which was filled with metal crates and other storage items. They rounded a corner and went through another pressure-locked door and into an elevator. "Hey Steve, what's for lunch today? Im starving..." The man complained. Steve turned towards him. "I think steak, mashed potatoes and orange juice." Steve said. He gestured towards a button labeled "Level Two, Sector D1". Steve turned towards the man again. "Josh, did the mechanic fix that annoying sound in the door to the barracks? That sounds been annoying the hell out of me." Steve asked. Josh nodded his head. "Yea they took care of that a few hours ago." The elevator finally lurched to a stop and the two men led him into a large office. A man wearing a business suit was sitting in a small office chair, looking out a glass window. "Ah, welcome, Tsien." He said warmly. "Do you want us to leave, President?" Josh asked. "Yes." He responded firmly. The two men stepped back into the elevator and left the two of them alone. "Do you know who I am, Tsien?" He asked. Tsien shook his head. "No, who are you?" Tsien asked curiously. "President Jefferson, or Adam if you like." Adam said. "Why did you take me here?" Tsien asked frustratingly. Adam opened up a file cabinet and looked through it. Eventually, he pulled out a large filed named "Project Europa". "Is this familiar?" He asked. Tsien looked curiously at the file. "Yes, thats the mission me and my team were sent on." He said. Adam looked through the file and pulled out a piece of paper. "It says here you were given a tesla mechanism, no?" He asked firmly. "Yes, I was told that it was far beyond our technology and that it was the only one in existence." Tsien responded. "Where is it?" Adam asked. "I think I left it back on our ship, where it crashed." Tsien said. Adam looked gravely at him. "If your friends don't find that, you'll be executed." Adam said gravely.

Chapter 39: A Sinking Feeling...

As Vermont's border appeared overhead, they cheered. But they noticed something horrible up ahead. Bodies were piled up everywhere, and blood covered nearly every inch of the ground. About seventy feet up ahead, they could see at least thirty people in combat armor walking off into the distance. Jonas looked at one of the body's and found that they had a insignia on their chests. Looking at a few others, he found that they were probably a militia and those people ahead were, probably, slavers. Taking out his gun, Jonas peered through his scope at the distant soldiers. The people ahead of them were bringing slaves somewhere. Jonas whispered to the others. "We should follow them, be quiet." They walked behind the slavers, keeping their distance from them. After a few hours, they found that the slavers were heading towards a large settlement that sold slaves to other settlements and caravans. Thousands of people were herded into small, fenced areas, and the smell of blood was awful. As they approached the gate to the settlement, they were greeted, like any other slaver. The courtyard was full of tents and supplies. Across the courtyard was a large, metal door, guarded by five slavers. Looking around, Jonas felt sick seeing people being traded like inanimate objects to people. They decided to leave the rancid place, and walked north east, yet again. They finally passed into Vermont, and they were greeted by a chilling coldness. Cold winds and irradiated snow swirled through the air. They couldn't see any cities in sight, only flat plains and destroyed farm houses. The snow bit at Marth's face, and the snow dug into his shoes. Mostly they could see snow capped mountains to the west, and much more snow to the south. As they trekked through the snow, they shivered violently as temperatures dropped and night came.

Chapter 40: An Intruder

Suddenly, a loud siren wailed through the room of President Adams office. "Ah, a intruder." Adam said with annoyance. Tsien looked towards the elevator. "Yes, lets leave, shall we?" Adam exclaimed, as if reading Tsien's thoughts. He opened the elevator and pressed a button that led to Level 1, Sector A1. The elevator lurched downwards, and after a few minutes, the elevator lurched to a stop. The doors opened, and officers lined the hallway and saluted to Adam. "N.M.L.S.S.a.R.L. has been completed, sir." One of the officers said. Adams face lit up with a smile. "Good, have the I.C.B.M.'s been loaded onto it as well?" He asked. "Yes, sir, all 60 of them." He said. Adam clapped his hands together lightly. "N.M.L.S.S.a.R.L.?" Tsien asked, puzzled. "Yes, an acronym for Nuclear. Missile. Launching. Space. Station. and. Research. Laboratory." He said smugly. "Why did you build it?" Tsien asked horrifyingly. "Ah, yes, we built it so we could clear the other half of the United States off. There is too many mutants around that area, as it is a nuisance for us." Adam retorted. Tsien verbally gasped. How could he do something so horrible? "How could you?!" Tsien yelled. "Don't be so childish." Adam said, and then suddenly whipped a metal baton across his head, and Tsien fell into unconsciousness. This is Lieutenant Koff, or formally Lt. Koff. I have left the Disciple after discovering a horrible secret. The Disciple has almost finished the N.M.L.S.S.a.R.L., which they will load with 60 I.C.B.M.'s and fire them at the western half of the United States. I took my laptop with me along with some supplies that might last around a month, but it will last. They also captured a man named Tsien, who has the credentials that will activate it.... I hope to God he doesn't have it. Those innocent people don't deserve to die like that. I can hear them looking for me, I have to go. I'm dead, oh God they're going to kill me!!!11!1!!

Chapter 41: Shadows

The snowstorm was relentless, never letting up. Marth struggled to keep footing against the cold wind. As bright as the snow was, he could see shadows speeding across the snow. Marth kept eying the shadows as he stomped through the snow. They flung through the air and seemed to leave behind traces. Eventually, the snowstorm seemed to start letting up, and eventually it became gentle and peaceful. Now that Marth could get a better look at the strange shadows, he noticed they were thin, suited humanoids. He shot at one of them and, oddly, saw that it disappeared in a dematerializing black. Catharine, Carter and Jonas watched curiously as Marth shot the rest of them. Jonas curiously examined the ground where one of the creatures dematerialized. He scooped up a small pile of ash and felt it. They felt like granules of sand, but colored black and felt warm to the touch. Jonas poured them back onto the ground. "What were they?" Catherine asked curiously. Getting up off the ground, Marth turned to answer her. "It seems to be some material those...things... were made out of." Marth answered. Carter felt an odd tingling in the air, as if the air was charged with electricity. The ashes started to float up into the air, and were reincarnated back into the creatures. Marth could see they were almost like a projection, flickering with static every few seconds. "Quick, a pulse grenade!" Marth shouted. Jonas dug through his backpack and tossed the grenade to Marth. He armed the grenade and threw it at the creatures. It exploded in a maelstrom of electricity. The creatures disappeared, without leaving behind the black sand-like ash. Puzzled at these strange humanoids, Marth concluded that these were extraterrestrial creatures. Going deeper and deeper into thinking, he finally concluded that these beings were organic, but made of pure energy. They continued into the cold, dark and mysterious night. A small drone on N.M.L.S.S.a.R.L. discovered a file meant for General Harigan. It proceeded to open it.     XX N.M.L.S.S.a.R.L. XX

General Harigan

  "Its the finest dang weapon we ever built. It's a hulking beauty at 1,200 tons, and it took too much petroleum to get 'er up here. She can load 60 I.C.B.M's and fire them at virtually any location on Earth. We built it out of space age polymers and tefla glass, so meteorites can't damage it. This is all the information I am aloud to record. This is General Harigan, signing out. --  

Chapter 42: Canada

Canada loomed overhead, and the dead husks of pine trees were painted across the dead landscape. A furious wind howled across Catharine, blowing across her face. The air had a crisp, cold, satisfying taste to her tongue. With each step she took, Catharine could hear the crunching of the snow under her feet. Small, rural, husks of farm houses were occasionally seen, along with the occasional car. They had no food remaining, and with the lack of a town or gas station around, they were forced to eat what they could, or starve to death. Carter turned to look at Marth's determined expression. His paucity of fear or fatigue surprised Carter. Jonas was looking around, as if trying to percept something that wasn't there. Carter felt empathetic for Jonas, his face expressed a deep amount of sorrow and longing. Catharine spotted an intact farmhouse. "Over there, I think there might be some food there." She exclaimed, breaking the silence that hung over them. The group sprinted for the house and dramatically clambered through the small, wooden door. A small couch and armchair were set in a corner, with a T.V. et a few feet away from them. Jonas walked through a doorway into, what seemed to be, a kitchen. He eyed a refrigerator and yanked it open, apparently too hard. A small jar flew out and shattered against the wall. Carter ran into the kitchen to see what had happened. "What happened?" Carter said urgently. "I accidentally smashed a jar against the wall, pointing to the shards on the ground. "Oh okay." Carter responded, and walked out of the kitchen. Jonas went through the refrigerator, pulling out boxed steaks and cold, crisp, drinks. He then opened up cupboards and small drawers, pulling out various foods. He walked out of the room and clambered up the old, carpeted staircase and found Catharine sleeping in the children's bedroom. He quietly walked to the left and into the master bedroom, finding Carter and Marth resting. "Hey guys, I found some food." He reported to them. "Great! Lets eat! I'm so hungry I could've ate dirt!" He exclaimed. Jonas dug through his bag and pulled out three packages of chips, three sodas and a steak. He wanted to save something for Catharine. They all happily ate the food. Jonas left the room to wake up Catharine. He shook her gently. "C'mon, get up." He said. Catharine suddenly burst off of the bed and flew into Jonas with a kick. He thudded against the wall. "What the hell?!" He yelled. Catharine giggled. "Bad dream. Sorry." She said smugly. Jonas got up off of the floor and came back into the master bedroom, with Catharine trailing behind him. He handed her the rest of the food, which she hurriedly ate. Symbolically, the sun came up behind the mountains and the light brightened up the room. Catharine tiredly rubbed her eyes, and sat in a small office chair. Childishly, she spun around in it, apparently bored. Jonas drifted into sleep... Jonas woke up the next day, feeling refreshed and energetic. He got up and and walked towards the stairs, while groggily rubbing his eyes. He missed a step and fell down the stairs, hitting his head on a large piece of metal railing. Blood spilled across his floor, and suddenly everything felt like a vision. His vision was foggy around the edges, and he saw Marth, Carter and Catharine rushing around him. Jonas felt himself being lifted off the ground and realized that he was being put back down onto the bed. He suddenly blacked out. "Get him a towel!" Jonas heard faintly. His vision turned black again. "He's losing to much blood, bring more bandages!!" He heard. He reached his hand out and felt a small, cold hand grasp it gingerly. He could feel blood flowing down his neck. He felt his breath draw in for one last time, and then exhaled. His arms went limp, and he felt his breath becoming deeper and deeper. Everything in his vision got foggy, and... he felt this burning... like an aching... he never had the time to finish the thought, and Jonas died at that very moment.

Chapter 43: Aftermath

Jonas's death had taken a huge toll on Marth. Ever since they had met each other, they instantly became close friends. They had buried him in front of the ruined house, and placed his favored FNL as a tombstone. Catharine had retreated to the guest's bedroom, and Carter was sleeping in the master's bedroom in order to forget about Jonas's death for a few hours. The three of them decided to leave in another day or two, in order to prepare for the trek to the Disciple's base and rescue Tsien. Mostly, they were dependent on what the weather would be like. Right now it was hailing, and the hail seemed to be the size of a small baseball. Fog also clouded Marth's vision when he attempted to look out the window. He decided to sleep off most of the boredom and sorrow he was feeling. Waking up the next morning, he saw everyone packing up their belongings. "Are we already leaving?" Marth asked curiously. After stuffing some clothing into her bag, Catherine turned to respond. "Yea, the weathers really nice right now, so we need to take advantage of it." She said. Marth sprung up from the couch, went towards the stairs, and went to pack up some of his stuff. He grabbed his duffle bag and started to shove his clothes and food into it. He finally finished packing most of his stuff, and decided to take a few of Jonas's handguns for memory and protection. He slung the duffle bag over his shoulder and came back down. Everyone appeared to be packed, and were waiting for him to get ready. "Come on, lets go." Carter urged. They flung open the door and were hit by a wave of fresh air and sunlight. Carter started heading north, towards a large mesa. Catharine and Marth trailed behind him. Things were a bit more green here, and it was evident most plant life was steadily making a comeback. A few apple blossom trees were blooming, but the flowers, instead of a bright pink, were a dark blue. A few apples could be seen hanging from the tree, but were like a bundle of grapes. Catharine tugged on Marth and Carter's shoulders and pointed towards the tree. Curious, Carter reached out and tore an "apple" from the tree. The outside was soft and damp, colored a dark amber. Piercing the skin around the fruit, a dull, orange liquid spilled out. Carter gingerly put one into his mouth, and clamped down. His expression softened, and he put the rest of them into his mouth. "They taste really sugary and satisfying." He said happily, and picked a few more. The tree's branches suddenly pulled up, much like what a flower looks like before its petal's spread out, and a shell formed around it, appearing to be very sturdy. Carter knocked on it, and his knuckle loosened and hung out limp. "I'm guessing this is its natural defense." Carter said, with his hand dangling limp. Catharine and Marth devoured the two other pieces of Shellfruit. They had around three of them left. Catharine reached for the rest and squeezed the juice into a small, metal canteen. Carter and his two other friends started heading north again, towards the mesa. Dew lingered on, virtually, everything that was exposed to the rain. It glinted when hit by the sunlight, casting a majestic and beautiful reflection in contrast to the rest of the wasteland. Marth could see the sun peeking over the mesa, casting shadows that jutted out. Several wild cows gnawed at fresh grass, and a few carcasses could be found nearby. A small cliff surrounded a nuclear waste dump, and steam could be seen rising from the many barrels of radioactive waste. A small bridge could be seen ahead, stretching across a large crater. Marth took out his powerful binoculars and pointed them towards the bridge. To his amazement, he saw that the bridge was constructed out of sheets of scrap metal and wood. Strafing his binoculars further to the left, he saw that this bridge was at least six-hundred feet long and fifty feet wide, serving as a settlement for people. Zooming in on a suspicious person, he noticed it was a Slaver. Looking towards the end of the bridge, Marth saw jeeps zooming towards it. A loud, piercing siren started wailing, and people ran from their daily preoccupations, and ran towards the other end of the bridge. Marth tugged on Catharine and Carter’s sleeves, and pointed towards the bridge’s entrance. They ran towards it and climbed up the support beams. The beams were large enough to walk on safely, about six feet wide, and they sprinted across it. Carter could feel the bridge swaying back and forth slightly, and nearly lost his footing. Getting closer to the intruders, they saw that they were slavers attempting to cross. The slavers and the inhabitants of the bridge stood facing each other, much like a wild west flick stand off. A round was fired and the area became a maelstrom of bullets flying everywhere. Marth climbed down a maintenance ladder, with Catharine and Carter trailing hurriedly behind him, and ran down the rest of the bridge. They must’ve cleared around five-hundred and seventy-three feet of the bridge, Catharine thought to herself. Only five of the bridge people were left, and the slavers appeared to have suffered defeat. One of the people executed the leader of the assault, and then turned towards the group quickly. “Who are you?! Are you another one of the slaver groups?!” He interrogated. “No-no we aren’t, sir.” Marth said quickly. He then grinned at them. “Well then welcome to the bridge-city of Prosper.” He said kindly. “My name is Jeffery Prosper, a descendant of the original founders of Prosper. The rest of the people here are Dan,” He said, pointing to a tall, shady, man. “My brother, Sergio,” He paused to point at a 5”9’ man, wearing a trench coat. “Those two are a few of Prosper’s citizens, Bob and Jessica.” Jeff said quickly. “This is an amazing town you’ve built here, how long did it take your ancestors to build?” Carter asked curiously. “Well, we should go inside and talk, it’s much cooler in there.” Jeff offered, and led them into a medium-sized house. The house was cooler, like he had told them, and he had a few couches on the first floor. Carter and his friends sat tiredly in them. Sergio went to pour each of them a glass of purified water. Bob and Jessica probably left, along with Daniel. Sergio set three glasses of water on a coffee table in front of the trio, and retreated to a small chair in the corner of the room. “Well, a man named Joshua H. Prosper had left a military bunker after the nuclear war, bringing seven others with him. He discovered this large gap, and decided to build a large platform extending around three-hundred and fifty feet out into the gap. But, they had a great idea. If they were to build the platform out onto the other side, they could make it so that people who wanted to pass through had to pay a toll. A lot of caravans came by them, so if they could make a good amount of money, they could buy more supplies and weapons. Eventually, Joshua married a women who was outcasted from a group of caravans, but her name was lost to us. They ended up having a baby, who was my great grandfather. But to get closer to the present, and more importantly, my father. Andrew was a hero for our settlement, as the supports that kept the bridge up were rusting. Based on predictions by our great scientists, by a few months the supports would collapse and destroy Prosper. He wanted to grapple down the gap and build stainless steel supports, but the scientists said that the radiation levels down there were dangerously high. Andrew went down there anyways and built the supports in under five days. He came back up and was severely damaged by the radiation. Using as much medical technology as they could, he ended up dying of radiation poisoning. It was a sad day, but he had a wife who gave birth to me. But, I had found out they my fathers body down the canyon... just because of the radiation.” He exclaimed, and sighed deeply. Marth looked out the window and saw the pillars that rose from the canyon below. Vines twirled up the pillars, and he could see the steel, still unstained, holding up the bridge. “What an amazing man. Andrew must have been extremely strong.” Marth thought to himself. Catharine quietly sipped at her drink, absorbing and processing the story she was just told. Carter decided to break the awkward silence. “There’s just one thing that baffles me: How could Andrew have built the supports in five days, and where did he find the stainless steel that could stretch around nine-hundred feet high and building it in under five days?” Carter interrogated. Jeff sighed deeply. “We aren’t sure about that, but, onto business. If your wanting to cross the bridge, which you probably need to, cough up one thousand dollars.” Jeff exclaimed. “What? We don’t have that much!” Carter yelled, surprised. “Maybe you could do us a favor. If you can, go down into the canyon and find his body and recover it, we’ll let you through, forever, for free.” Jeff offered them. “Fine. We need a radiation suit though, and someone willing to go down there.” Carter requested, then Catharine nudged him. “I’ll do it. I climbed Everest in ’14.” She exclaimed. “It’s a risk, but yes, I think you should go.” Marth said, worryingly. Sergio jumped up from his chair. “I’ll get the suit.” He said, then he clambered up the narrow wooden stairs. A few minutes later, after loud banging and grunts, Sergio lugged down the suit. It was exactly Catharine’s size. The suit had a faceplate shaped like a “⋎”, colored a dark black, and the rest of the suit was a light grey. A air hose connected from a small machine, on the back of the suit, into the mask, which would turn irradiated air particles into clean air. She put on the suit, and pressurized the helmet with a small press of a button. A pulley was lodged into the top left corner of the locker, and she grabbed it along with a few other climbing supplies. She grabbed a pair of zephirite claws, made of sharp metal, and left the building. She nearly tripped over a milk crate full of bottles of cola, and accidentally dropped the claws. Annoyed, Catharine bent over and picked up the claws, slipping them back over her hands. Citizens of the town Prosper were peering out of their houses, staring at her admiringly and shouting encouragements. She waved happily to them, feeling like a hero out of a fiction story. She finally reached the other side of the bridge, where people had crowded around the canyon’s edge, and Catharine took a deep gasp when she looked down the canyon. The canyon’s wall was lined with craggy, treacherous rocks and the radiation levels leaped when she just reached out with her geiger counter. Taking a cautious step, she placed her foot gingerly down on the rock. She stumbled, then started climbing down the steep bluff. Catharine stabbed a four foot pike into the rock and tied a zephrite wire to it She locked the pulley onto the wire, and started grappling down the canyon, the sky becoming more distant with each drop.

Chapter 44: The Pit

Catharine reached the bottom of the canyon, and found herself stepping in piles of radioactive waste. The rad levels rose to 700 r/ps. “This is Marth, can you hear me? Over.” A voice asked. “Yea, I didn’t know that there was a communicator in here.” Catharine said. “Your supposed to say over, over.” Marth insisted. “Ok. Over.” Catharine said, annoyed. The canyon was filled with destroyed cars, skeletons and other inorganic waste. “How am I supposed to find some skeleton in this huge mess! It’s impossible!” Catharine complained. “You didn’t see over. Over.” Marth smugly commented. “Shut up, Marth. Over.” She said, gritting her teeth on “over”. She turned over a piece of sheet metal, and found a skeleton clutching an hammer. Catharine bent over, and threw the body over her shoulder. She climbed up the steep rock face again, pulling up on the support string with one hand, and carrying the body with the other. As she pulled herself up the grapple, she examined the cracks in the rocks. Suddenly, she realized in horror that these rocks would collapse. “Shi-!” She yelled, then was cut off by the loud boom of large pieces of rock tumbling town the canyon. Catharine lost her grip on the rope, then barely caught it with the hand still holding the skeleton. The top of the cliff wasn’t too far up, so she clipped her belt loop to the seemingly adamant wire, and threw the skeleton as hard as she could. Catharine heard the skeleton clatter against the sand and stone at the top. She began to work her way up, then Catharine finally reached the top of the canyon, and was greeted by Marth, Carter and Jeffery. Jeffery sighed, sadly, when he saw his dad’s skeleton. “Thanks a lot. I’m incredibly relieved to be able to put my dad in a final resting place.” He said, then went to a small shed near his house. He went into it, and a few seconds later he emerged with a cross and a spade. Jeffery started digging a hole about 7 feet wide, and then gently set his father’s skeleton into the hole. He started piling dirt onto the makeshift grave, and then shoved the cross on top of the mound. “You can go through now... please come back soon! I’ll be glad to see you sometime soon.” He said. The three of them started walking off into the distance. “Hey, do you know where the Yui Complex is?” Marth yelled out. “It’s north, but don’t go near there! There’s these armored soldiers that are extremely dangerous!” Jeffery yelled out. Marth ignored him and kept walking north.

Chapter 45: Nefariance

They silently approached the Yui Complex. Large, adamant walls surrounded the complex, and Disciple soldiers paced up and down the steel walls, watching the surrounding area like hawks. “There’s an entry point over there.” Marth said, pressing his body against the walls. Catharine and Carter followed his movements, trailing behind him as they worked their way along the warm metal. A small building, around 8 feet high, stood next to a recently rebuilt road. “That must be a security checkpoint.” Carter said perceptively. Carter got down onto his stomach and buried some sand on top of him. “Catharine,” Carter mumbled discreetly. “Lay down and put some sand on top of you, so you won’t get noticed, and Marth will try and overpower the guards in the checkpoint.” Marth nodded his head appreciatively. He then watched the guards routines, observing every repeated action any of them made. After a few minutes, Carter started nudging him impatiently, complaining that the sand was getting in his shoes and pants. “Quit whining.” Marth whispered fiercely. Carter then settled down and mumbled to himself. Marth noticed an interesting pattern. When Officer A was walking down the steel wall towards the southern end, Soldier A was going to the bathroom. It seemed that Soldier A drank a lot of water. That left a 30-50 second opportunity to dash towards the security checkpoint. An alarm went off in Marth’s head, and he dashed towards the rectangular checkpoint. He quietly skulked into it, being as quiet as possible. A voice then pierced his ear. “Who the hell are you?!” A gruff but commanding voice shouted. “Shit!” Marth thought to himself, then stared at the man. He appeared to be a sergeant. Marth started stuttering, trying to devise a plan. “Um... um... I’m a Disciple Ghost! I was assigned to the area north of here, along w-with a few others!” Marth stuttered, trying to look like a nervous rookie who had gotten in trouble. “You think that’s enough information, maggot?! Show me your I.D.!” He yelled in Marth’s face. “Oh well, let me get that out, sir.” Marth sneered. He dug through his pockets, then quickly pulled out a small wooden club and slung it across the mans head. The sergeant was forced to the ground, groaning silently. “Sorry about this.” Marth said, then tightly grasped the man’s head. He twisted his wrists quickly, breaking the man’s neck. Marth quickly changed from his dirty, bloody and worn fatigues into the clean and formal clothing of a sergeant. He then started looking around the small room. Steel lockers lined down one end of the room, while the other had computers and other electronics. Suddenly, the door burst open. Marth instinctively pulled out his gun and aimed it towards the intruders. “Calm down, you idiot. It’s only the two of us.” Catharine said, annoyed. Carter was snooping around the room, examining every single aspect of it. He then swung open the lockers, and found Disciple power armor, a PKM and 2 XM8s. Carter took two of the suits and the guns. He handed a piece of armor and an XM8 to Catharine. Then he tossed the PKM to Marth, then he slipped on his own armor, along with Catharine. “Come with me.” Marth commanded. He rushed out the door, with a PKM in hand. The guards at the gate barely had time to react to the flurry of bullets. They were instantly killed, leaving blood splattered across the wall. A sniper silently got into position on a watchtower. Carter looked down his iron sights, and shot a single bullet at the sniper. A small spray of blood was projected into the air, and the sniper fell off the tower. The door to the Yui Base suddenly flung open, and more Disciple soldiers rushed out. Catharine rolled across the ground, then took cover behind a stack of large metal crates. Carter was reloading when he accidentally dropped an ammo clip. “Shit!” He scrambled for the clip, but it was being very malicious. “Catharine! Cover me!!!” Carter yelled. Catharine started to open fire on the Disciple soldiers attacking Carter. Marth seemed to have found a Devastator, a large 5.56mm heavy machine gun with a large clip of 500 bullets. The massive gun started firing, and the sound of it was amazing. Instantly, the wave of soldiers that were attacking them were ravaged, and killed. “Thanks Marth! You saved my ass.” Carter said appreciatively. They then rushed through the entrance, and expected an attack. Instead, the small lobby was empty, devoid of any soldiers. “Be careful, this could be a trap.” Marth cautioned. “First, get rid of your weapons,” They all dropped them. ”Carter, take the left hall. Catharine, go through the maintenance shafts and see if you can find Tsien. I’ll take the elevator.” Marth commanded. The three said their goodbyes, and went towards their respective path’s. Catharine and Carter was crawling through the dust and grime that lined the maintenance shaft. Her her was getting tangled and greasy, and a rancid smell filled her nostrils. “Why’d we have to be the ones to crawl through here?!” They both mumbled furiously. Catharine saw a small vent cover to her left, and peered through it. “-What the hell were you doing in our base!?” A furious man said. A man in ragged clothes was strapped to an armchair, and had bruises and cuts up and down his body. The interrogator reached towards a tray. On that tray was a tazer, a scalpel and a short metal rod. He grabbed the rod and smacked it across the mans head. The prisoner spit up a bit of blood, and stared at the ground. “I have nothing to say to you.” The interrogator’s face twisted into an angry expression. He snatched the tazer, and fired it at the man. “Ahhhhhhhh!!!” The prisoner screamed loudly, and twitched uncontrollably. “Are you ready to talk?!” The interrogator slurred. “Ahahahahaah!” The prisoner laughed. “Why the hell are you laughing, scum?!” The interrogator demanded. “I just swallowed a cyanide pill” He said smugly, then fell limp. “Damn it!” The interrogator yelled. “What a lunatic.” Carter stated. They started crawling again, and eventually came to a T-section. To the right, they could hear an eerie wind blow past their face’s. Then, roughly turning to the left, Carter heard people talking. They decided to head that way, and started crawling to their left. The vent started groaning, then it suddenly collapsed under them. They started falling, and then painfully hit the ground. A few people surrounded them, aiming Gauss pistols at Catharine’s head. “Damn it...” Carter said mournfully. Catharine got to her feet and stared one of the men. She then suddenly enveloped into a whirlwind of sharp kicks and jabs, knocking some of the men down and even killing them. Carter scrambled off the ground and stared in awe at her. “Where the hell did you learn that?” He said rhetorically. Catharine scooped up a Gauss pistol and a few XND cells. She opened up the small and delicate ammo container, and put in a XND cell. The pistol made a hiss, confirming that the cell is fully charged and functional. Carter took a long knife off of one of the soldier’s belts. Finally getting the chance to examine their surroundings, they could see that they had fallen in a corridor. According to a holographic map, they were on level B-3. Carter noticed that there could be a place they could re-group. They headed for the launch pad. Marth had taken the elevator to floor B-2, which led him to the barracks. Using the computer that was on the elevator, he saw that around this time, around 50-80 Disciple troops were active inside the barracks. Thankfully, he had Disciple armor on, so deception would be seemingly simple. But, if he got too close to anyone, they would notice that he wasn’t actually one of them. A regular Disciple soldier, without their armor, would have pale skin, as they stay inside the base most of their time. Marth had tan, weathered skin. He finally opened the small elevator door and examined the tidy barracks. Soldiers conversed about food, what girls they thought were the hottest in the base and other “normal” everyday things. “Did you hear about the new troops we issued? They have these really long swords and they’re so fast! I think they’re called “White Ghosts”!” One of them mentioned. Marth walked casually past the soldiers, avoiding eye contact with them. “So how about that guy named “Tsien”? I heard they were going to take him up to N.M.L.S.S.a.R.L. so he can watch the fireworks. The guy in the Department of Security main office “interviewed” him 3 minutes ago.” A soldier said, conversing with a male officer. “N.M.L.S.S.a.R.L.?” Marth asked. “Don’t you know about it? It’s the Nuclear Missile Launching Space Station and Research Laboratory. They have around 24 I.C.B.M.’s loaded onto it now! Soon, they’re going to launch them at the western half of North America.” The officer said happily. “Why are we doing that?!” Marth asked, confused. The officer chuckled lightly. “Are you some new recruit? Because your really stupid. Anyways our enemies, the Wolf’s Fang, have been attacking many of our bases. Their main base is situated in California, along with 100’s of other bases going up to a few in Michigan.” He said. “Oh.” Marth responded blandly. He started walking towards a staircase, which was made with an elegant marble. As he walked up the staircase, he saw that the stairs led to an elevator. A plaque was planted next to the elevator, stating that the Department of Security’s offices were on the next level. Marth pressed a dimly lit button, and heard a small ding. The doors slid open, and Marth stepped inside the elevator. Pleasant music started to play through some hidden speakers. Marth pressed a gold plated up button, and the elevator lurched upwards. As soon as he knew it, the elevator came to the second floor, the doors slid open. A receptionist sat behind a desk, busily working at a computer. As Marth walked in, the receptionist’s head turned towards him. “Hello. Before you continue, we ask that you change into something more formal. Power armor is not allowed on this floor.” She said kindly, and pointed towards a men’s restroom. Marth pushed open the door, and walked into a small changing room. In the changing room was a locker, which Marth opened. “Niiice.” Marth said appreciatively to his self. A black business suit hung neatly from a hanger, along with a pair of shaded glasses and a WCH (Wireless Contact Headset). “Damn. If I just stroll through there as if I were one of them in this, I’ll get shot down. Only if I had skin dye.” He said vehemently. Marth changed into the clothes anyways. Then an idea came to him. He threw open some cabinets, and found what he was looking for: Cosmetics. Applying a light beige to his entire visible body, he now looked no different then any other Disciple soldier. He walked for the exit, and pushed open the doors. “Excuse me, but where can I find the main office?” Marth asked kindly. “Ohh...” She said, gawking at him. “It’s up those stairs,” She directed, pointing at another marble staircase. “then, take a right and head down that hallway. His door is plated with gold, so you can’t miss it.” She said, obviously attracted by his disguise. Marth walked up the stairs, and turned to the right. A beaten man with bruises was standing at the end of the hallway, holding a silenced MP5. His torso was covered with blood, and a limp hand was sticking out of the doorway. That man happened to be Tsien. Chapter 46: Only Time

“M-Marth?” He gasped. Marth rushed towards him and gave him a hug. “I thought they would kill you!” Marth said happily. “Where’s Jonas?” Tsien asked expectantly. “He’s... he’s dead.” Marth said sadly. “...I see.” Tsien said mournfully. Tsien then picked up a keycard. “I was going to go to the launch pad.” Tsien announced. “Why?” Marth asked. Tsien twirled the keycard around in his hands. “To stop the N.M.L.S.S.a.R.L. from destroying the western United States.” He responded. A crackle came from Marth’s headset, and he heard a familiar voice. “Marth? Marth, is that you?” Carter asked. “Yes it is, I found Tsien. We need to head for the launch pad - now.” Marth commanded. “Why do we need to head there?” Catharine asked curiously. “There’s this orbital space station. It’s called the N.M.L.S.S.a.R.L., which stands for Nuclear Missile Launching Space Station and Research Laboratory. There’s 24 I.C.B.M.s loaded on it, and they plan to destroy half of the United States because of a rivalry between the Disciples and the Wolves Fang.” Marth said. “Okay. We just got here, we are hiding out in a small storage room. Catharine out.” She said, and a crackle of static signaled that she had hung up. “You should get used to girls doing that to you.” Tsien chuckled. Marth punched him in the shoulder. “Calm down, I was kidding.” Tsien said, and they both laughed. “There’s an elevator in this guy’s office,” Tsien said, pointing in the room with the dead man. “We can take it to the room Catharine and Carter are in, then we can-” Tsien said, and was interrupted by a loud voice over the intercom. “The shuttles are now leaving for N.M.L.S.S.a.R.L.! Long live the Disciples!” The computerized voice said. They quickly piled into the elevator, and the elevator lurched downwards.

“Tsien!” Catharine and Carter shouted happily. “We can talk later. We need to catch up with the president and stop them!” Tsien said seriously. They all rushed out of the room and started opening fire on the shuttle. The bullets glanced off of it, not even leaving a scratch. “Tangos sighted, permission to engage granted!” A strange soldier shouted. “White Ghosts!” Carter said reflexively. All five of the soldiers were dressed in tight fitting suits, colored a dark black, the face plates were colored a dark blue and they held long, thick blades. Four of the soldiers rushed at them. Carter took out his stiletto knife, and lunged at one of them. The White Ghost dodged it with ease, and slashed his sword across his shoulder. Carter was lucky enough to block the blow with his knife. He spun his leg under the Ghost’s feet, and tripped him. The Ghost barely had time to get up, so Carter stabbed the man in the chest, instantly killing him. He saw Catharine fighting with a set of claws she still had from Nantos. She stabbed the man in the neck, then used her other hand to rip off his head. Her clothes were instantly stained with blood. A Ghost kicked her across the floor, knocking her into a pile of wooden crates. The Ghost walked towards her, with his sword raised above his head. Marth swung a piece of wood at the mans head, and the Ghost was thrown against the wall. Tsien was fighting the last one with a sharpened piece of titanium, and finally stabbed it through the mans chest. An alarm started to wail, and a loud, booming voice came over the speakers. “Tsien has escaped with the help of other insurgents! They’re held up on the launch pad! All troops must head towards that area!” Catharine brushed off some dirt and blood that had gotten on her arm. “There’s a shuttle! Come on!” Marth shouted, and rushed for it. Tsien followed behind, and stuck the keycard in a small slot. It ejected the card, and the door slid open. The interior of the ship was polished, and the computers in it seemed to be state-of-the-art. Tsien and Carter ran over to the ship’s controls and started pressing buttons. The ship turned vertically, and lurched upwards. The Disciple soldiers were firing at the ship, but their effort was in vain, as the ship was made out of tough metal. Marth and Catharine sat down in chairs near the cockpit, and strapped on crash webbing. The wasteland below them soon became blurred, and the clouds started blocking their view. Carter stared blankly out the window at a large, stunning object that soon began filling their view: the N.M.L.S.S.a.R.L.

Tsien turned the ship, and landed inside the fairly small hangar. They all piled out of the ship, and examined the hangar. It was devoid of life, and it seemed that nobody had been here for 300 years. The interior of the space station was cold, and there were barely any lights on. The only few sources of light were a few emergency bulbs, and a computer. The computer was sitting on a small office desk on a platform, above a pressure-locked door. Tsien walked up the metal staircase, and sat down in front of the computer. The dormant machine was cold to the touch, but was very powerful. He jittered the mouse around, to get it out of sleep mode, and the monitor brightened up. It seemed the owner of this computer had a liking for nature, as the background on the desktop was a beautiful waterfall. A file, entitled “Engineer Notes” was hidden in the right corner of the screen. Tsien double-clicked on the file and the folder opened up. A list of files ran down the window. “Log #1: Type Blue: Power Failure in Dormitory C”. Tsien clicked on the file. WordEdit then opened up the file. There was a power failure recently, around 0400. Upon heading down to Dormitory C, I had found that the wires had crossed and caused both of them to melt. I then had to run back to my sad excuse for an office and fetch my toolbox, and run a diagnostics test on the power grid. Upon opening WireTerminal, I saw that the mysterious room in the middle of the ship was sucking up a lot of power again! All I know is that this space station is only meant for the safety of us. Tsien moved to the next file, “Log #2: Type Red: Extreme Situation!”. The elite team of engineers saddled up and went to the head office. The situation was gruesome. The wheel on Mr. Moore’s chair was squeaking. Really, this is definitely what I was put here for. The complaint system is meant for serious and malicious situations! I’m not some maid!  The door to the center sphere broke. Oh well, not of my interest.  I... I found a secret. A ventilation issue had happened not too long ago, and I had to crawl through the vents to find out what it was. I had accidentally stumbled into the sphere in the center of the H.I.a.P.S. (Human Insolation and Preservation Ship), or shall I say, the Missile Bay. I had noticed 4 nuclear missiles loaded onto there. A large fusion generator, a smelter and a research lab. This isn’t meant for the preservation of special humans. This is madness. “Hi Tsien!” His friends yelled suddenly. Tsien instinctively pulled out his gun and aimed it at his friends. “What the hell?” Tsien asked. “We were just reading over your shoulder...” Marth stated innocently. Tsien climbed out of the chair, holstered his gun, and walked down the metal stairs that led to the make-shift office. He walked towards the pressure lock door and pressed down on a button. The door hissed, and shuttered open. Catharine, Marth and Carter followed him into the room as well. A small desk was huddled into a corner, and a few living plants were scattered around the room. Marth walked over to the desk, and looked under it. He found a button that opened the pressure-lock door. He was about to press it, when Tsien interrupted him. “Stop! Look at the door.” Tsien instructed. Marth turned his head and examined the door. “If you can’t notice, the door is broke,” Tsien stated, and walked over the door. He then crouched down and pointed at a buckling gear mechanism. “If you open it, the door will force open, and the vacuum will kill us.” Tsien said. Catharine walked worriedly over to the small group. “What are we supposed to do?” She asked. Carter started tapping his foot. “Aha!” He exclaimed, then walked over to a small closet. “There might be mag-boots and a few space suits here. If one of the windows cracked from a meteorite impact, they would have to go outside the ship, magnetically sticking to the surface of the ship, and repair it.” He explained, then he opened the closet. “What do you know, there’s a couple of space suits!” Marth said, surprised. The four of them slowly put on the bulky boots, and then slipped on the suits. “Open the air lock.” Marth said. Tsien walked over to the large door that separated them from the void of space, and depressed a small button. The door shook open, and they stepped into a small room. The door closed behind them, leaving an eerie echo inside the small airlock room. Tsien curiously walked over to the exiting door, and opened it. A hiss began to fill their ear’s, and an alarm wailed inside the small room. The airlock door opened, revealing the dark carpet of outer space. Marth, Catharine, Carter and Tsien stepped outside of the room, and their feet suddenly clipped onto the side of the ship. “Woah!” Carter said, surprised. Once everyone got their balance, they walked along the hull of the space station. Catharine took a second to examine Earth. The land was no longer a glorious green, but a dull brown and tan. “Catharine, come on!” Marth exclaimed. Tsien was opening the other airlock door, along with Carter. They finally pried it open, and the group attempted to pile into the small room. They all barely fit inside the room. Carter pulled the steel door closed, and re-pressurized the room. They walked into the next section of the ship, which appeared to be a dormitory for the male occupants. Shirts, shoes and personal effects were scattered around the room. Carter suddenly noticed a few familiar creatures. “Look! It’s those creatures that disintegrated into silver dust!” Carter yelled. He started firing at the humanoid, and the bullets simply glanced off their “shields”, but one pierced one of their hands. “How rude!” “He” said, holding up his hand. It suddenly started to heal, and the air started to rippled around the bullet wound. “You shot me. That wasn’t very nice.” He whimpered, then faking a sniff. The three of them deactivated their shields. Two of them were males dressed in black jumpsuits, with black hoods folded back. The female leader was in the same type of suit, except with a orange faceplate over her head. “Don’t even try to stop us. The I.C.B.M.’s are going to be launched soon. You might as well give up!” She said, verbally spitting at them. “To be more formal, I guess your worthy of knowing our names. I’m Jennifer, that guy is Daniel and he’s Jack.” She exclaimed. “Hmph!” Carter said. “We’ve gone through too much to stop here. So either get out of our way, or throw yourself out the air lock.” He continued, smirking. “You know, I’m allergic to vacuum, so I can’t really do that.” She retorted. “Just get out of our way, or your blood is going to be splattered all over the wall.” Tsien said seriously. “No.” One of the male soldiers said. He drew a blade from his sheath, and the other two followed suit. They lunged at the group. Marth parried the attack with a long knife, then attempted to stab the attacker. Jack slashed his sword away, and tried lunging again. Marth grabbed his head and slammed him to the ground. He then stabbed his knife through Jack’s throat, then pulled it out barbarically. Catharine was in a bit of trouble, as she was only fighting with a pipe. Her opponent, Jennifer, was beating her back with a long sword. Catharine attempted to hit her neck, but failed. Jen retaliated by kicking her square in the chest. Catharine quickly got back on her feet and barely parried a head-level blow. Marth rushed from her left and cut through Jen’s thigh. She yelled in agony, then she still tried to kill Catharine. Marth then severed her head from her body, and it comically fell to the ground. Her body went limp, and she collapsed to the ground. Tsien and Carter were still trying to defeat Daniel. Catharine and Marth rushed over to their aid, and attacked him. Catharine successfully hit Daniel in the thigh, then Marth stabbed his knife through Daniel’s chest. Daniel fell to the ground, and clutched his chest. “You... won’t stop us...” He said. “Go to hell.” Marth sneered, then stomped on his face. Chapter 47: Flames of the Sky

The three Disciple Warriors were lying in puddles of blood. The group had left the male dormitory and entered the female dormitory. Unlike the male dormitory, it was fairly clean, and only a few skeletons could be seen in it, tucked into their bunks. Tsien headed for the exiting door. “This is it. Once we go through this door, we can head to the missile bay. We shou-” Tsien said, and was interrupted by a loud alarm. “Self-destruct sequence initiated. Root program code 423139544xx1 has been activated. All personnel are to evacuate. This space station will self-destruct in 10 minutes.” It exclaimed. “Crap! Hurry and open that door!” Marth shouted. Tsien pressed a button, and the door slid inside the wall. They all piled into the fairly large room. The door to the missile bay was surrounded by glass, displaying the large center of the space station. “Dang. They locked the door with a high-security pass code. I’m not sure if I can get it open.” Carter exclaimed. Tsien pointed towards a large diagram of the space station, situated on the wall behind them. “The admin. office is located two rooms away. We’ll have to go through storage and... the exiting door in storage is broke.” Tsien started to explain, then groaned. He pressed a few buttons, and a complex system of lines replaced the simple corridors on the map. The air ducts can’t be travelled through, they’re too small. Oh... sewage is big enough to fit us.” He said, disgusted. “No, no, we can just pry the door open!” Marth responded quickly. “Yeah, I agree!” Catharine implied. “It’s safe enough to do, but we’d have to be careful. Breaking one wrong mechanism can cause it to shut us out, forever.” Carter said. Marth walked over to the door and stuck his knife into it stubbornly. Catharine sighed pitifully. “Your not going to get it open using a little knife.” She said. “Oh...” Marth retorted. He walked over to a locker in the corner, and opened it. A small meat cutter, sort of like a chain saw, but smaller, was jammed into the corner of it. He pulled it out of the cabinet, and turned on the motor. It started to make an ominous grrr noise.