If they don’t want your help; they don’t want your help. You can understand that. No point in bringing in anyone else to debate the issue. You get on your motorcycle and depart. When you get back to the Compound you just say you didn’t find anything on this little excursion. Life continues.

Four years pass…

Five years total have passed and The Compound has grown somewhat, not much though. The theory to that of course is the background radiation has probably made a lot of folks sterile. (And you’re damn sure you probably are, after that trip to the city that you still continue to think about) however it has become much more than “The Compound” now. Alliances have been forged with other towns thanks to you and others. The Compound has been renamed Fort Justice and the alliance itself is known as The Combine.

However, not everything is stable. The Colonel hasn’t been well lately; in fact he’s been sick for the past year. Everyone’s wondering if he’s going to die. You’ve noticed Harry has been taking a lot of liberties with orders lately, which you’re constantly always arguing with him about. If it was up to him, he’d put all the towns you’re allied with under martial law. You can’t even believe he suggested sending people to the city again, since he thinks that all the survivors were probably dead by now and it would be “safe”.

One day the Colonel wants to see you in private as he lies on what is probably going to be his death bed soon. He addresses you immediately when you enter.

“Good you’re here, I don’t have long and I need to talk to you.”
“Uh, okay.”
“Go look at those schematics on the table over there.”

You do as the Colonel says, and see some blue prints of what looks to be a base of some sort. You also see the logo “GZS” in several places. You remember that was the logo of that corporation that was trying to sell everyone their Shelters before the bombs hit. You sometimes wonder how things would’ve turned out, if you bought one. While you’re looking, the Colonel continues to speak.

That’s the floor plans to a top secret military base, my friend Alex got them for me a long time ago before the bombs dropped. He used to work there. It was some place where the government and the Ground Zero Survival Corporation were doing a secret joint project. Something to do with weapons. I always thought it would be a great benefit, if we could ever get a hold of whatever they were working on. I tried to make contact with the base since I know the radio frequency it used, but I never got any response from Alex or anyone.”
“Hmm, so why didn’t you ever send some people there?”
“Wow, you really are in your own little world, I figured you at least heard other people talk about it in the past. Anyway I did. Several times about five years ago. Everyone I ever sent never returned. Got to the point where I couldn’t in good conscience sent people to what looked to be their deaths, besides a lot of people were less than enthusiastic to accept the mission, the last few times I sent people out they just deserted. Eventually I just wrote it off that maybe the place is occupied by a superior hostile force. Just one of the reasons why I was really keen on the idea of creating an alliance with surrounding towns. Who knows when that force would decide to venture out and start heading this way? Actually a couple of years ago, I thought about sending YOU out there. I figured you being the most capable; you might actually survive and get back to be able to report something.”
“What stopped you?”
“I couldn’t risk lose one of my best people, especially since you were doing a good job at proving we could help protect the other towns. Besides you already got sent to one unnecessary death trap five years ago, didn’t seem right to send you to another.”

You’re wondering where the Colonel going with all this, so you get to the point.

“So what’s all this ultimately have to do with me?”
“I’m promoting you right now since I want you to take over after I die.”
“What?!”
“This place needs someone stable, Harry isn’t suitable. In fact, I dare say he won’t be pleased with this decision…you may even have to kill him.”

You’re a little overwhelmed by all this.

“Whoa, whoa, hold the fucking phone! I don’t want this!”
“I know you don’t, but it’s the best chance for the Combine’s survival, because that hostile force I mentioned? It’s real. And it’s on its way. Recently I’ve been picking up radio signals and they are from the base. They didn’t say much, except that they were coming to cleanse this place. I haven’t told ANYONE about this yet.”
“What, is it some sort of heavily armed professional military group or some shit?”
“I wish. I question if they’re even human. The voice sounded cold and robotic. I think we’re going to find out first hand what exactly the government and GZS were secretly working on.”
“Well hold on, couldn’t they be masking their voice?”
“I suppose it’s possible, but I dunno…something in my heart tells me that this is going to be really bad…like it won’t just stop here. I’m almost glad I won’t be around to see the destruction.”
“I still don’t understand why you want me to take over; I’m not exactly the leader of men. In fact I’d say they’d listen to Harry before they listen to me.”
“I can’t argue with you anymore…maybe you’re right…maybe not…the choice I suppose will be up to you…all I’ll say is with Harry in charge you might as well leave the Combine now, because I don’t wager you’ll be alive under his reign long enough to even see the attack occur. Maybe it might even be for the best, I wonder if even the total strength of the Combine will be enough to drive this attack back.”

The Colonel sounds like he’s being a bit over dramatic, he’s making a lot of assumptions here. You not sure you want all this responsibility, but if you’re going to take it, you better do it now.
> You decline
You’ve had your mind debates before about whether to leave or not, but it looks like this is the final one. You never sought this path and you certainly don’t want to be commanding anything, but staying here really isn’t an option anymore. Time to move on. In some ways you always thought it would come to this one day.
“I can’t do it Colonel. Sorry.”
“Very well then, I guess I can only hope Harry’s ruthless nature and hamfisted way of leading works. After you leave, send him to see me. We won’t speak again.”

You leave and for once go find Harry. He’s in the cafeteria screaming at someone to scrub the floor harder. When he sees you, he gives you the typical hostility.

“What the hell do you want Cupcake?” he sneers.
“The Colonel wants to see you, better hurry too he doesn’t have much time.”

Harry doesn’t bother to retort, his eyes seem to light up at the prospect that the Colonel is dying and that this could ONLY mean he’s getting official command. In his haste of rushing past you, he doesn’t notice your foot, which you purposely stick out to trip him. He falls on floor and lands squarely on his nose, breaking it.

“AH SHIT!” he yells holding his nose while still on the floor.
“Whoops, sorry about that, cupcake.” You say walking out the cafeteria.

You go back to your room and start packing your belongings and determining what might be useful, Marina is there and wondering what’s going on.

“What’re you doing?”
“Leaving. My time here is done; Harry’s going to take control of the Combine, which probably won’t be for long if the Colonel’s predictions are true. Now Marina, you know I love you, and you say you love me. So if you really do, you’ll come with me.”
“And where the hell are we supposed to be going?”
“I know a place. A place I found in my travels which I never told anyone about, and apparently nobody else found, hopefully it’s still a friendly place.”
“Well hold on, isn’t there some other way?”
“Not unless Harry’s attitude towards me does a complete turn around. I’m not going to stay some place where my life is in constant danger and besides the Colonel’s going on about some robot invasion he think is going to take place. Can’t say I want to stick around for that either. And I can’t say I want YOU to stick around for it. Just come with me, why is that so difficult?”
“Because I don’t believe in fucking running from my home! Do you understand that THIS place has basically been my home longer than it’s been yours? And that most of these people I’m friends with, and they’re like a family to me? Maybe YOU don’t have that bond, but I do. I’m not just going to abandon this place. Look, maybe you can talk to the Colonel, I mean he respects you more than you might think, maybe he’d see you as a more stable candidate to command this place, and then…”
”He already tried to offer me the job. I turned it down.”
“You what?!”
“I turned it down! I don’t want the fucking responsibility. I never did. I’ve always said I’ve always just stayed here for you and for how you rescued me from dying in a nuclear firestorm, but my survival is severely at stake if I stay here. I mean what do you want me to die for you or something?”
“I wanted you to be a fucking man and be ambitious, which I thought you were. I always saw potential in you, I saw it way back before the bombs hit. I thought you were trying to take some initiative by moving up the ranks like you did. Like you had your eyes set on becoming leader of this place. I saw you being able to really help the rebuilding process. I mean you were vital in many of our alliances. And what did you do? You just threw all of that work down the fucking drain, because you’re fucking scared of more responsibility.”

You’ve always known Marina to be a bit of a “Lady Macbeth” type with her always wanting you to strive for power and be ambitious. And out of your feelings toward her, you have tried to oblige that to a degree, but after hearing this shit, you can see you were almost nothing more than some sort of pawn. You don’t need this. You never needed this. Yet, there’s no point in arguing. This is hard enough as it is. You take the high road with Marina.

“Marina, I’m just gonna say this, you saw something in me that was never there to begin with. I’m sorry to disappoint you…thanks for saving my life and hopefully you have a nice one. Maybe you can marry Harry or even better, take control yourself, since you seem to have the proper mindset and already a lot smarter.”

Marina is silent. You finish packing and open the door, you linger a bit hoping she changes her mind, but you can tell she isn’t when she turns her head to keep you from seeing that she’s obviously upset and going to cry.

You slam the door and go back up top to the surface; you take one of the motorcycles and zoom off. You do it all the time so nobody finds you leaving out of the ordinary. Eventually you head back to Lost Springs. Looks like it did when you found the place four years ago. You’re welcomed again, but they tell you they still aren’t interested in joining the Compound. You laugh and say that’s not why you’re here and immediately ask if there’s any work that needs to be done since you plan of staying on a permanent basis.

A year passes relatively uneventfully in Lost Springs.

One day a wandering traveler passes through. For whatever reason he strikes up a conversation with you while you’re sitting the local cafe.

“Hey friend.” The traveler says.
“Hmn.” You reply still reading a book.
“This place is pretty remote huh? It was only by sheer dumb luck I stumbled upon it, you guys don’t get many people coming here do you?”
“Other than me, you’d be the first in a long time. We’re pretty self-sufficient here and like to keep to ourselves.” You say still without looking up.
“Hey, good idea. It’s a crazy fucking world out there. I say you got the set up. Still, doesn’t the Cybernetic Evolution worry you?”
“Cybernetic Evolution?” you ask finally looking up.
“Yeah! You never heard of them? Well I guess I should warn you then. It’s this group of killer cyborgs that want to remake humanity or exterminate them if they don’t comply. There’s robots too, but mostly cyborgs. I heard they’re lead by some nut case called Alex. They’ve been spreading all over the place; the Combine is losing the war with them. That’s mainly why I’m trying to get out of the area.”
“Hold on, the Combine?”
“Yeah! Come on you never heard of them either? Wow you are in your own little world! The Combine is an alliance of towns with the head base called Fort Justice. Of course Fort Justice was razed to the ground months ago, and now the current towns are wondering how to proceed since Fort Justice was where the line was being held not to mention where the best soldiers were. I heard nobody was spared. Now most of the towns are suffering raider attacks again who are taking advantage of the chaos as well as attacks from the CE. Looks fucking bleak man.”

Bleak indeed. While the traveler concentrates on his drink, you stay silent thinking about Marina. What might’ve happened. Did she get killed, did she escape, or even if maybe she was turned into a cyborg? You’ll never know you suppose.

“Well, I have to get going. Nice talking to you and hope the CE doesn’t find this place.” The traveler says finishing his drink and getting up to leave.

You continue remain silent while you reminisce. You wonder if you could’ve done a better job if you’d stayed behind. You do a lot of second guessing for awhile, of course that’s been in your nature in the beginning.

You didn’t know whether or not you wanted to buy a bomb Shelter, and you were re-thinking the decision that you didn’t. You spent what you thought were going to be your last days with your co-workers and you were re-thinking that decision after you did that. You thought about leaving the Compound several times, before you actually did it and now you’re re-thinking that decision as well.

“Shit, I would’ve made a lousy leader; it takes me forever to make up my mind and then I agonize over the decision.” You say to yourself. Oddly this revelation makes you feel somewhat better, like you did make the right decision to leave.

If nothing else you’ve at least been able to make good decisions concerning your own survival and you’re about to make another one. You go to the run down motel that you’ve been staying at, and pack your belongings. Its time to move on again, you figure you should get out now while you can.

You say goodbye to the few acquaintances you’ve had since your time here and warn them about the CE before leaving. It’s up to them what they’re going to do. You can’t make people leave if they don’t want to…even if you want them to.

And once again, you’re off, with the unknown future dead ahead of you.


Nope, in for a penny in for a pound. If nothing else, Marina’s still there and the fact her actions basically saved your life is enough to make you stay.

The rest of the trip is Steve still ranting to himself about the deaths of his friends. True, they weren’t your friends, but you guess you can see why he might be upset. You’d radio in to the Compound, but Roger was the one carrying it and he’s a headless (and probably now eaten) corpse back in the city.

You don’t say anything else until Steve nearly drives the car into the gate of the Compound at which point you step out of the car and remove the hot ass radiation suit and demand to see Harry. Everyone is wondering what’s going on.

Harry hears your shouting and comes out of barracks, the Colonel does as well; good you want him to be here as well.

“What is your major malfunction you screaming queen?” Harry asks angrily, as if you’re the one at fault.
“My malfunction is sending us to the goddamn city was a fucking stupid ass idea! What made you think there would anything of any use there anyway? You just trying to get us all killed?”
“No, just you, cupcake.”
“You call me fuckin’ cupcake one more time and me and you are gonna go round and round you dumb fucking gung ho military wanna be asshole!”

Before Harry can respond to your insult the Colonel steps in.

“ALRIGHT ENOUGH! I won’t have infighting in my Compound! Harry we talked about this before that I didn’t want any recon missions to the city! At least not until we got better established!”
”But Colonel, I though we should…”
“You DON’T THINK! That’s for ME to do! You obey fucking orders! I’M in fucking charge around here and you better not forget that!”
“Yes Colonel.” Harry utters grudgingly.

Now the Colonel turns his attention to you.

“And YOU do not fucking rant like a goddamn maniac in front of everyone lowering morale and encouraging dissention! Like it or not, you’re going to be sent on dangerous missions. If you want to stay here you better start learning to get with the fucking program and follow orders!”

You’re getting really tired of hearing that one.

“So, all this aside, what exactly happened in the city and what did you find?”
“Nothing! There’s just a bunch of crazed cannibal freaks living there, armed and dangerous.”
“I see, well then all future missions to the city are going to be called off. I’m not risking anymore of my people’s lives by sending them there. We’ve lost too many people on these recon missions quite frankly. I sent a couple of people on a special assignment and I haven’t heard any word back from them, not to mention the people we’ve lost trying to contact other known towns. Fortunately, it hasn’t been a complete loss we how found a few pockets of civilization. We need to start developing good relations with them now though. This will help in our rebuilding process. For now you’re dismissed, but don’t get too comfortable. I’ll be sending you out again soon.”

You turn away and go back to your room in the underground part of the Compound wondering if you shouldn’t just fucking leave, just then you get a visit from Marina. You’re kind of glad to see her despite your pissed off mood.

“Are you okay?”
“Hell if I know I just spent a day in radiationville. I’ll find out when my balls start shriveling up in three days!”
“I think those suits would protect you from that happening.”
“Yeah, I know everyone thinks they’re magical…nevermind I’m not even mad about that, I mean I understand we all got this lofty mission of re-establishing civilization or some shit, but I just don’t see the fucking point in it. And I REALLY don’t see the point in getting sent on suicide missions!”

Marina sits next to you and tries to explain.

“Okay, that WAS a mistake. In fact I wish you would’ve told me! I could’ve told the Colonel and he would’ve cancelled the mission! Harry likes to think he’s second in command, but he’s really just louder and more aggressive than most around here and that’s why he’s in a command position, but I think you could do just as good a job. I mean you’ve already braved and lived through going to the city and from what you described and Steve’s mental breakdown it sounds like it was pretty bad. Total anarchy and lawlessness. And that’s one of the reasons why rebuilding civilization is important. Do you really want to live in a world like that? I know you think this is all some sort of paramilitary bullshit, but we DO have a plan. Isn’t it more advantageous to try to make the world a better place and have some sort of order?”
“Trying to make the world a better place…yeah a lot of people in the past have thought they were doing that too and you can see how that turned out…THIS! Look, it’s a nice idea, but I don’t see it happening, not then, not now, not ever. I’d say our best bet would be to just try to live out the rest of lives as comfortably as we can in this hellhole of a world and not go messing around with shit unless its necessary.”
“…so I take it you’re going to leave?”

You look a Marina before responding.

“No, I’m not leaving, but I’m staying for you, not an ideology or plan. My feelings for you override whatever disagreements I have with the current political agenda, if that’s even the proper term for it.”
“Well that’s sweet, but I do hope you develop a more positive attitude about this place.” Marina says hugging you.
“Doubt it, but I suppose anything’s possible now.”

A year passes…

You don’t feel any different, but you’re used to the Compound’s plan of “re-building” civilization. You’ve moved up the ranks due to the fact that you’re competent, something the Colonel realizes and respects even if Harry hates you. But due to your “loner” attitude you’re usually sent on scouting missions by yourself rather than given any kind of command position. Ironically, you’ve been one of the key people in developing good relations with the nearby towns, since you’ve developed the knack of the sniper’s art over the past year which really comes in handy when killing raiders. The Colonel’s of the idea that if the Compound can prove its able to help defend towns from raiders, more people will want to join, the towns will be more willing to trade or even better a whole town will want a formal alliance.

Perhaps slightly imperialistic, but what the hell, it’s better to be the top dog and at least the intention is somewhat for good reasons. All part of the rebuilding process.

Right now you’re in the town that you found called Lost Springs, it’s a remote little town that doesn’t have any problems with raiders due to its somewhat hidden location (Though the wandering mutant bear is a problem sometimes) and while they’re friendly with you, it’s clear they just want to be left alone and keep to themselves. This might not be a problem, except they have a continual supply of fresh water from some underground stream. Not even mildly radioactive! (Though you’re still convinced you’re going to start mutating any day now since your trip to the city) It’s a resource that can’t just simply be ignored, but you’re not exactly a diplomat, so you’re not going to be convincing them on your own (And it’s not like you can impress them with your super duper raider killing skills)
> You get some help
You’re in this for rebuilding civilization, so you figure you should do all you can. You leave the town to get in a better transmitting area and radio in and explain the situation. Steve’s working the radio (Never could go out again after the incident in the city)

“…yeah, so if you can send some more diplomatic people here, that might help.” You finish saying.
“So, you’re saying there’s a fresh supply of water and no standing defense force there?” Steve asks.
“No, not really. They don’t have any problems with raiders, just with some of the more aggressive wildlife. Defenses basically consist of a few good hunters with rifles, but like I said they aren’t interested in us being able to defend them. A different bargaining chip is going to be necessary.”

Suddenly you’re cut off for a little while, you think your radio is having problems, but soon you start getting a response again.

“Okay, report back to the Compound. We’ll send Vivica and a few others to take care of it. We got the location of the place from your information.” Steve says and signs off.

You head back to the Compound. You know Vivica’s one of the more diplomatic types, so you don’t think anything else of it. She’ll ether be successful or she won’t.

When you get back though you find out one of the “others” that went with her was Harry. You find that suspicious, he’s NEVER gone on a single recon mission, let alone anything diplomatic.

Soon the group sent to Lost Springs returns and you see Harry and a couple of the more obedient people to him, who you don’t see is Vivica. You can’t help but think the worst.

And you turn out to be right unfortunately.

Harry tells a story to everyone of how the people became hostile and they had to defend themselves, Vivica was “unfortunately” killed in the process. He goes on to say that he’s secured the town, by leaving some people in place. You’re over hearing this in the courtyard of the Compound and you can’t stay silent.

“You fucking murdering liar. Those people were fucking peaceful! I was there and never once were they hostile! You took that town by force and probably had Vivica killed when she tried to stop you and your fucking mindless lackies!”
“Watch your fucking mouth cupcake! Don’t condemn my actions for your own failures because you’re too much of a pussy to do what needs to be done! I’m telling you they attacked us! I got witnesses! What the fuck do you have? Shit, how do we even know you weren’t fucking collaborating with them and trying to lead us into a trap? It’s a well known fact you’re not exactly loyal to the Compound.”
“LOYAL? What the fuck? You fucking dipshit I’M one of fuckin’ people who’s been key in the HELPING the fuckin’ Compound! Or have you forgotten all the good relations we have with other towns due to me?”
“Yeah and how do we know you’re not getting all chummy with all these outsiders in the attempt to try to build up your own fucking army to take power? In fact I’m thinking I might be going on a lot more of these missions, I don’t trust you and neither should the rest of you!”

At this point Marina steps in to say something, but you stop her causing Harry to taunt you again.

“Yeah, that’s right Cupcake, hide behind Marina’s skirt again.”
“Harry, I dunno if you’re more jealous of the fact that I’m actually more useful to the Compound, or the fact that I have access TO Marina’s skirt, something I heard you attempted before I got here and failed miserably.”

You struck a nerve there. Harry lunges at you and the both of you tussle on the ground for awhile before the Colonel finally arrives wondering what the fuck has been going on. After reprimanding the pair of you, he calls you in his office for a full report of what exactly happened when you were at Lost Springs, then he does the same with Harry, unfortunately Harry has a few people that are loyal to him that are willing to back up his bullshit. Assuming they would even be believed, the citizens of Lost Springs can’t even back you up, since as it turns out later Harry killed them all.

And while the Colonel isn’t taken with the idea that you have some sort of ulterior motive, he does allow Harry to start heading out on missions, since he did acquire a useful resource for the Compound.

Four more years pass…

Five years total have passed and The Compound has grown somewhat, not much though. The theory to that of course is the background radiation has probably made a lot of folks sterile. (And you’re damn sure you probably are, after that trip to the city that you still continue to think about) however it has become much more than “The Compound” now. Alliances have been forged with other towns. The Compound has been renamed Fort Justice and the alliance itself is known as The Combine.

Of course the term “alliance probably isn’t really appropriate here. After the Lost Springs incident, things started getting a lot more authoritarian. Over time the towns you’d established peaceful relations with, Harry started hinting that a more permanent military force be established in them. (To help with raider problems more readily as he tried to claim)

New towns that were come across were usually bullied into “joining” or outright taken by force and lowest of all, there’s been actual recruitment OF raiders, some of them being stationed in the very town they were attacking on a regular basis.

You can’t believe the Colonel doesn’t stop Harry’s actions, but the problem is, is it IS working. The Combine is thriving under this aggressive strategy and becoming a strong entity. You on the other hand are eventually relegated to guard duty at Fort Jusitce, Marina finds the whole thing unfair and becomes really disillusioned with the new direction that this place has taken.

In fact she does something you never thought she would, she suggests you leave and you can’t say you’re not in agreement with the idea. Not just because you never really cared about the “rebuilding civilization” process anyway, but more because Harry’s power is starting to increase day by day lately and the Colonel has been sick, in fact he’s probably going to die any day now. It’s only a matter of time before Harry is in total control and when that day comes, you’ll be fucked if you’re still here.

You and Marina pack what supplies you can and start loading them into one of the vehicles. This doesn’t go unnoticed, in fact you start being questioned since there was no order to take one of the vehicles out and you’re no longer on scout duty anymore. You try to come up with a lie on the spot, but words fail you at the moment and you resort to more direct measures and slug the nosey bastard in the face, dropping him.

“Get in the fuckin’ car now Marina!” you shout as you do likewise.
> You take the wheel
Marina slides over and you take the wheel and screech off. Considering Harry’s hatred of you and the fact that this is considering going AWOL and stealing Combine equipment, you aren’t just going to get away with this.

You don’t get far when you’re soon pursued by other vehicles. You tell Marina to fire upon them, while you attempt to lose them. She does her best, but she’s not an expert marksperson like you. One of those raider scumbags that have been an all too common in the new Combine recruitment policy manages to drive up to your side window and shoot a crossbow bolt right through your neck.

You clutch at your mortal wound and lose control of the car, flipping it over and killing Marina as well.


You’re in this for rebuilding civilization, so you figure you should do all you can. You leave the town to get in a better transmitting area and radio in and explain the situation. Steve’s working the radio (Never could go out again after the incident in the city)

“…yeah, so if you can send some more diplomatic people here, that might help.” You finish saying.
“So, you’re saying there’s a fresh supply of water and no standing defense force there?” Steve asks.
“No, not really. They don’t have any problems with raiders, just with some of the more aggressive wildlife. Defenses basically consist of a few good hunters with rifles, but like I said they aren’t interested in us being able to defend them. A different bargaining chip is going to be necessary.”

Suddenly you’re cut off for a little while, you think your radio is having problems, but soon you start getting a response again.

“Okay, report back to the Compound. We’ll send Vivica and a few others to take care of it. We got the location of the place from your information.” Steve says and signs off.

You head back to the Compound. You know Vivica’s one of the more diplomatic types, so you don’t think anything else of it. She’ll ether be successful or she won’t.

When you get back though you find out one of the “others” that went with her was Harry. You find that suspicious, he’s NEVER gone on a single recon mission, let alone anything diplomatic.

Soon the group sent to Lost Springs returns and you see Harry and a couple of the more obedient people to him, who you don’t see is Vivica. You can’t help but think the worst.

And you turn out to be right unfortunately.

Harry tells a story to everyone of how the people became hostile and they had to defend themselves, Vivica was “unfortunately” killed in the process. He goes on to say that he’s secured the town, by leaving some people in place. You’re over hearing this in the courtyard of the Compound and you can’t stay silent.

“You fucking murdering liar. Those people were fucking peaceful! I was there and never once were they hostile! You took that town by force and probably had Vivica killed when she tried to stop you and your fucking mindless lackies!”
“Watch your fucking mouth cupcake! Don’t condemn my actions for your own failures because you’re too much of a pussy to do what needs to be done! I’m telling you they attacked us! I got witnesses! What the fuck do you have? Shit, how do we even know you weren’t fucking collaborating with them and trying to lead us into a trap? It’s a well known fact you’re not exactly loyal to the Compound.”
“LOYAL? What the fuck? You fucking dipshit I’M one of fuckin’ people who’s been key in the HELPING the fuckin’ Compound! Or have you forgotten all the good relations we have with other towns due to me?”
“Yeah and how do we know you’re not getting all chummy with all these outsiders in the attempt to try to build up your own fucking army to take power? In fact I’m thinking I might be going on a lot more of these missions, I don’t trust you and neither should the rest of you!”

At this point Marina steps in to say something, but you stop her causing Harry to taunt you again.

“Yeah, that’s right Cupcake, hide behind Marina’s skirt again.”
“Harry, I dunno if you’re more jealous of the fact that I’m actually more useful to the Compound, or the fact that I have access TO Marina’s skirt, something I heard you attempted before I got here and failed miserably.”

You struck a nerve there. Harry lunges at you and the both of you tussle on the ground for awhile before the Colonel finally arrives wondering what the fuck has been going on. After reprimanding the pair of you, he calls you in his office for a full report of what exactly happened when you were at Lost Springs, then he does the same with Harry, unfortunately Harry has a few people that are loyal to him that are willing to back up his bullshit. Assuming they would even be believed, the citizens of Lost Springs can’t even back you up, since as it turns out later Harry killed them all.

And while the Colonel isn’t taken with the idea that you have some sort of ulterior motive, he does allow Harry to start heading out on missions, since he did acquire a useful resource for the Compound.

Four more years pass…

Five years total have passed and The Compound has grown somewhat, not much though. The theory to that of course is the background radiation has probably made a lot of folks sterile. (And you’re damn sure you probably are, after that trip to the city that you still continue to think about) however it has become much more than “The Compound” now. Alliances have been forged with other towns. The Compound has been renamed Fort Justice and the alliance itself is known as The Combine.

Of course the term “alliance probably isn’t really appropriate here. After the Lost Springs incident, things started getting a lot more authoritarian. Over time the towns you’d established peaceful relations with, Harry started hinting that a more permanent military force be established in them. (To help with raider problems more readily as he tried to claim)

New towns that were come across were usually bullied into “joining” or outright taken by force and lowest of all, there’s been actual recruitment OF raiders, some of them being stationed in the very town they were attacking on a regular basis.

You can’t believe the Colonel doesn’t stop Harry’s actions, but the problem is, is it IS working. The Combine is thriving under this aggressive strategy and becoming a strong entity. You on the other hand are eventually relegated to guard duty at Fort Jusitce, Marina finds the whole thing unfair and becomes really disillusioned with the new direction that this place has taken.

In fact she does something you never thought she would, she suggests you leave and you can’t say you’re not in agreement with the idea. Not just because you never really cared about the “rebuilding civilization” process anyway, but more because Harry’s power is starting to increase day by day lately and the Colonel has been sick, in fact he’s probably going to die any day now. It’s only a matter of time before Harry is in total control and when that day comes, you’ll be fucked if you’re still here.

You and Marina pack what supplies you can and start loading them into one of the vehicles. This doesn’t go unnoticed, in fact you start being questioned since there was no order to take one of the vehicles out and you’re no longer on scout duty anymore. You try to come up with a lie on the spot, but words fail you at the moment and you resort to more direct measures and slug the nosey bastard in the face, dropping him.

“Get in the fuckin’ car now Marina!” you shout as you do likewise.
> You ride shotgun
Like there was any other choice?

You slide in next to Marina who guns the engine and screeches off. Considering Harry’s hatred of you and the fact that this is considering going AWOL and stealing Combine equipment, you aren’t just going to get away with this.

You don’t get far when you’re soon pursued by other vehicles. You tell Marina to concentrate on driving, while you attempt to do some road warrior shit. Luckily you’re still an excellent marksman, and you manage to either shoot the tires or the drivers of the cars and motorcycles in pursuit of you. Eventually you escape.

After a few days of driving you and Marina start wondering where you’re going to go. You can’t drive forever, you’ll run out gas eventually and you don’t relish the idea of walking.

However, once again luck is with you and you find a small place called Ashtown where you stop. Fortunately the people seem to be friendly. You immediately make yourself useful by helping with eliminating some bandits and raiders (A bit like the old days actually). You and Marina decide to stay and make a new life here, though in the back of your mind you’re always expecting some sort of arrival of the Combine, maybe not coming to look for you specifically, but you know they’re probably still expanding.

About a year passes and nothing unusual happens, until a wandering traveler passing through decides to talk to you for some reason while you’re sitting in the local café.

“Hey friend.” The traveler says.
“Hmn.” You reply still reading a book.
“This place is a pretty well organized town. Pleasant too. Glad I found it.”
“It’s better than most places.” You say still without looking up.
“Hey, I know what you mean. It’s a crazy fucking world out there. What with the Cybernetic Evolution and all.”
“Cybernetic Evolution?” you ask finally looking up.
“Yeah! You never heard of them? Well I guess I should warn you then. It’s this group of killer cyborgs that want to remake humanity or exterminate them if they don’t comply. They’re supposedly from some sort of secret military base that was doing high tech experiments. There are robots too, but mostly cyborgs. I’m surprised they haven’t headed this way, but then again, they’ve been pretty busy trying to combat the Combine. Never thought I’d be glad that the Combine exists, but I gotta say if it weren’t for them, the CE would’ve probably expanded all over the fuckin’ place by now and I guarantee we wouldn’t be sitting here having this pleasant conversation.”
“Hmm, so the Combine is winning?” you ask.
“Well, I wouldn’t say that, it’s more like a stalemate. Kind of a good thing too, since I don’t really want them winning either. Those Combine bastards are a bunch of bullying fascists. Especially with that fucker Damon in charge.”
“Damon? Who’s that?”
“Damon, is the newest leader of the Combine. Thinks he’s some sort of military genius, but all he is, is a common desert thug who’s a little more intelligent than his buddies, probably still more competent than the last leader Harry who Damon killed to get the job.”

A smile forms across your face when you hear that news, while the traveler continues his story

“Anyway that’s partly one of the reasons I’m traveling. I don’t want to be around when the war finally ends, either way the people who live nearby are going to lose…speaking of which I gotta get going, nice talking to you.”

After the traveler leaves you do likewise and tell Marina what you just heard. She asks you if you think if it would be a good idea to leave as well. Perhaps you haven’t made all the right decisions in this new harsh world, but if nothing else you’ve at least been able to make good decisions concerning your own survival and you’re about to make another one.

You and Marina pack your belongings. Its time to move on again, you figure you should get out now while you can.

You say goodbye to the few acquaintances you’ve had since your time here and warn them about the CE-Combine War before leaving. It’s up to them what they’re going to do.

And once again, you and Marina are off, with the unknown future ahead of you.


You may not like this mission, and you may not like the people you’re with, but it’ll be a lot safer if you stick with these idiots, because you have a bad feeling about this place. In the meantime while you keep your eyes open, your ears are assaulted by your teammates’ conversation.

“I’m telling you she touched my hand dude! She’s totally into me! I’m gonna talk to her more when we get back.” Albert exclaims.
“Bullshit, you didn’t get anywhere with Vivica! I should know because I fuckin’ tried once and she didn’t give me any kind of play! I think she’s a fuckin’ dyke anyway.” Roger replies.
“Why the hell does she have to be some kind of dyke? Couldn’t be that she didn’t like
your ugly ass?”
“Fuck off Albert, go ahead and make an idiot of yourself trying to hit on some carpet muncher. I don’t give a shit; I’m just trying to keep you from wasting your time.”
“Oh…well maybe she’ll let me watch or something.”
“Yeah, right. That never happens except in the movies.” Steve says.
“The other problem with that plan, I can’t think of any other woman in the Compound that might swing that way. Not unless you were some smooth pimp motherfucker that could talk her into it and given that you’re far from that Albert, I’d say you’re shit out of luck.”
“Well couldn’t one of you guys help me? I mean, you could try to talk your girlfriends and we could all watch or something.”
“Yeah, there’s a problem with that plan too Albert, namely neither one of those fuckers got girlfriends either.” You interrupt.
“Ha fuckin’ ha. Nobody asked you for your opinion smart ass.” Roger remarks annoyed.
“Hey, do you think you could maybe talk to Marina then?”
“Everyone shut the fuck up I hear something!”

After looking around and up, in a split second of total silence, Roger speaks again.

“There’s nothing here, this city was fucking annihilated, ain’t nothing alive except maybe rats and roaches. I dunno even know why we’re so worried to begin with, do you think if anyone WAS still left alive they would be in any condition to…”

Suddenly Rogers head explodes like a ripe melon after getting hit by a shotgun blast coming from the second floor window of a nearby building. The “thing” holding the shotgun is reloading and alerting his fellows.

“MEEEEEEEEAAAT!” it screeches in a raspy voice.

More figures start appearing. Most have a half-crazed appearance and severe radiation burns. Apparently these bomb survivors have had their minds damaged along with their bodies.

“Holy shit, we’re gonna die!” Albert screams and starts firing at everything. You and Steve do likewise while retreating back to the car. Before you all manage to leave the immediate area, the thing with the shotgun manages to get off another shot, blasting Albert in the leg, tearing it off. He screams and tries to crawl away, but is quickly mobbed and the last thing you see of him is some of the freaks sinking their teeth into him.

“GET THE FUCK MOVING STEVE!” you shout stepping up your pace.

Eventually you and Steve manage to get back to the car and speed off back to the Compound. Steve is pretty upset and while there isn’t any traffic on the road, you still don’t want him to be crashing into something else.

“Steve calm the fuck down, and get a hold of yourself!”
“Fuck you man! Didn’t you see that?! They fuckin’ killed Roger! And they ATE fuckin’ Albert! Aw shit man! Shit! They’re gonna come after us!”
“I doubt that, they don’t even know where we’re from. Just be glad we got out of there. It was a stupid idea to go there in the first place. There’s nothing there except crazed radioactive cannibals. I’m gonna tell Harry that much when we get back. Nobody’s going there again, especially not me!”

You’re pretty pissed about this whole affair really and the more you’re thinking about it; maybe you should just not return to the Compound, you have enough equipment and supplies to keep you in good shape for awhile. All you’d have to do is get rid of Steve and take the car.
> You get rid of Steve
Fuck this shit, you’re not dealing with it anymore. You point your rifle at Steve, who’s still hysterical about his friends dying.

“Alright Steve, pull this car over and get out.” You say calmly.
“Wha…WHAT? Are you fuckin’ crazy man? What’re you doing?”
“I’m giving you a chance to fucking live that’s what! Now pull this fuckin’ car over!”
“My friends just fuckin’ died and you pull this shit?”
“You wanna end up like your goddamn idiot friends? You pull this car over now or your brains are gonna be all over the fuckin’ windshield! DO IT!”
“NO!” Steve shouts and violently swerves the car into nearby wreck alongside the road which you didn’t even notice until you went flying out of the windshield upon impact.

You walk away from the crash, but you don’t walk far when you fall unconscious from your head wound injury and never wake up.


You turn off the TV and head to work, no point in worrying about things you can’t do shit about. You have other real everyday problems to deal with.

You go about your mundane life, doing mundane tasks at your mundane job, talking to your mundane co-workers about mundane things. Not much changes.

One month later...

Monday 8:00 AM

You groggily wake up from the sofa like you always do, dreading to have to go to work at your pointless job. You haven’t been sleeping well lately, you don’t know what the hell the problem is, and all you know is you’re going to be tired for work again. As you go through your routine of getting ready, the TV can be heard; as usual you left it on from the night before.

“…Russian hardliners seized control of the government…Chinese epidemic has worsened; entire country is under quarantine…UK has withdrawn all association from the EU…Senate dissolved in US, martial law enacted…India declared open war on Pakistan…mass starvation in Africa… world wide depression…

Same old doom and gloom on TV, a lot more serious now though. Those “silly” bomb shelter infomercials have increased; you’ve also been noticing an increase in survival type book titles whenever you browse the book stores now and the Emergency broadcasting system has been doing A LOT of tests lately. Something bad is going to happen and it’s going to happen soon.

You go about your life which isn’t quite so mundane, world politics is a constant topic at work, and many of your co-workers aren’t even coming in to do their job. All the married ones are no doubt spending time with their families, in fact the work place really isn’t a work place anymore so much as it is a “socializing site”. A lot of them believe the world is coming to an end anyway, so they might as well have a good time. Attempting to go about your normal life isn’t an option anymore; neither is buying a bomb shelter at this late stage.
> You start staying home
You really didn’t have any desire to know these people before, why bother now? You only worked there because you needed to. Now that it appears the whole world is going to hell, you might as well just stay home. You wonder if you shouldn’t have prepared yourself for this inevitable event, but it’s too late now. Last time you heard, the city was in complete anarchy, riots were breaking out and the National Guard was shooting people, can’t get supplies from there now. The nearest general store closed up by its owner who headed up north with his family a month ago. Whatever supplies you have in your house will have to do. You start walking around armed at all times as you often think you’ll be attacked by stray looters, who have escaped the city, but then again you live in a house on the dead end of wilderness, nobody ever comes out this way normally, and you never see another living soul.

You’re all alone.

You spend much of your time watching TV and on the internet keeping up on events, one day blurring into the next as you often fall asleep after spending long amounts of time of being awake…

Monday 8:00 AM

You groggily wake up from the sofa.

“…BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE….”

You wake up to a test pattern on TV.

This is it.
> You go for a drive
You calmly go to your van and start it up. You drive towards the city like you would if you were going to work. You see large black smoke clouds over it in the distance, out of control fires do doubt. You guess the exodus from the city is over, because the roads are pretty empty, except for the various car wrecks you pass by, this would almost be a peaceful “Sunday drive” if there wasn’t hints of carnage on the road and the fact that it was Monday.

As you get closer to the city, your van stalls and then stops completely. You don’t bother to turn it back on instead you get out of your car and look up in the sky shielding your eyes from the sun shining down.

You see a bright light and then nothing at all.


You really didn’t have any desire to know these people before, why bother now? You only worked there because you needed to. Now that it appears the whole world is going to hell, you might as well just stay home. You wonder if you shouldn’t have prepared yourself for this inevitable event, but it’s too late now. Last time you heard, the city was in complete anarchy, riots were breaking out and the National Guard was shooting people, can’t get supplies from there now. The nearest general store closed up by its owner who headed up north with his family a month ago. Whatever supplies you have in your house will have to do. You start walking around armed at all times as you often think you’ll be attacked by stray looters, who have escaped the city, but then again you live in a house on the dead end of wilderness, nobody ever comes out this way normally, and you never see another living soul.

You’re all alone.

You spend much of your time watching TV and on the internet keeping up on events, one day blurring into the next as you often fall asleep after spending long amounts of time of being awake…

Monday 8:00 AM

You groggily wake up from the sofa.

“…BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE….”

You wake up to a test pattern on TV.

This is it.
> You head down to your basement
It’s always been like you to do things at the last minute.

After grabbing your pistol and all the food and drink you can, then heading down in the basement with it, you think that things probably won’t be that bad. After all you don’t live in the city, or even by an important city, surely not EVERY place will get bombed. It’s not like you live on the east or west coast, now those people are going to be fucked.

No, all you have to do is wait this out, and then things will get back to normal…okay well maybe not normal, but surely the government will restore order of some sort, you’re sure they have a complex plan for this kind of thing.

Eventually you hear a very loud noise; whatever light you had on in the basement immediately goes out as you can hear your house being hit by a powerful force. You curl up in a ball and hold your ears half expecting the entire house to collapse in on you, but it doesn’t happen.

You stay in the basement, for what you guess to be a week. You mostly stumble around in the darkness as reality begins to set in and destroy your previous delusions. You mainly think about how you should’ve planned things out better, especially since your food and drink are running out. The only thing you know really know about nuclear attacks is what you’ve learned from movies, video games and comic books. You can only hope some of that shit was helpful, as you have little choice, but to leave your basement, the bucket you were using to relieve yourself down there was really starting to stink anyway.

You open up your basement door, which remarkably stayed intact, along with most of your house. The windows and other glass objects have all broke, and there’s no power, but that’s about it. You can only guess that whatever it was that hit, was far enough away and probably very low yield. You don’t really want to think about the radioactivity factor though; you’ll know if you’re catching a lethal dose soon enough if your hair and teeth start falling out and you begin vomiting blood.

Damn you wish you bought that bomb shelter…

You check the refrigerator again for more food, but there won’t be enough to last you one day. You wonder if the water is still working and turn on the faucet, of course it doesn’t, you don’t think you’d want to risk drinking any of it anyway. Well it looks like you can’t stay in your house either; you’re going to have to leave to find food and some sort of drinkable liquid.

Damn you wish you bought that bomb shelter…

Well if you’re going to leave, you decide some sort of protection is in order; you grab some dishwashing gloves underneath the sink, some safety goggles you’ve had since you college chemistry class, a winter coat and finally a scarf your grandmother knit you for one of your birthdays to wrap over your mouth. You look somewhat silly in this getup and it probably won’t protect you at all, but you’re back to deluding yourself again which is probably a good thing since your relapses into fantasy are keeping you from breaking down completely.

You open your dented garage door and get in your old van expecting it not to work, surprisingly it does. You thought it wouldn’t due to all that stuff you remember hearing about EMP waves or something, then again your car was built in a year before they started mounting entire computers in the fucking things, so maybe that’s why it still works. You don’t know, you’re just glad its one of the things you still have that functions, you didn’t want to be riding that bike you bought and hardly ever used. You throw your backpack of useful items (flashlight, small tool set, first aid kit, etc) into the van and ponder where to go.

You’ve got two choices that immediately come to mind assuming both still exist; one is that “Mom & Pop” General Store that was abandoned at least a month ago. You can’t imagine they took everything from the place. The other choice is to risk going to the city and finding something there. Despite all the looting and mass exodus that was going on there before any of this went down, the city’s still a big place and there’s probably lots of useful stuff there, the problem is wondering if you’ll be heading into a death zone. That radioactivity concern is still in the back of your mind.

Damn you wish you bought that bomb shelter…
> You head to the general store
You might be absorbing more rads than usual now, but heading to the city would just be retarded. You’d probably die of cancer just going near the place; everything there would be contaminated anyway. You don’t even want to see the survivors what the survivors might look like assuming there were any. You head for the general store, that’s at least a safer bet.

You drive your Van to the general store not very far from your house. You remember the old guy who ran the place; Billy. He was always alright with you. Whenever you went in to buy food, he was always talking about how bad the state of world was getting and how he was going to be  prepared for when the nukes started flying. You’re guessing he probably invested in one of those Ground Zero Survival Shelters you always saw for sale on TV and took himself and his wife to it. The last time you saw the place it was all boarded up and looked closed up for good, still it’s a start.

You arrive at the store which is still all boarded up like the last time you’ve seen it. You always found it weird that Billy bothered to board the place up, if he was going to abandon it. Surely he couldn’t have thought things would be restored so quickly after a nuclear exchange that he’d be able to return some day.

You get out of your van and study the store more closely which you never bothered to do before, the windows are boarded up from the outside, but upon closer inspection the door hasn’t been boarded up at all. You try the door, but it’s firmly locked. Nothing else for it, but to bash it down. You begin prying, slamming, kicking and everything else to the door, but its not budging and you only succeed in bruising your shoulder. In frustration you pull out your pistol and finally just shoot at the lock and then try to open it, which it does slightly, something else is barring the door from the inside though. You’re going to have to start ramming the thing again to shove it open enough to get inside.

Suddenly you hear some noise from inside and the click of a shotgun, it’s also only just then you realize that Billy’s pick up truck is still parked by the side of his store. He’s obviously still here and you were oblivious to the fact.

“Goddamn it Martha, hasn’t been a month yet an’ we already got scum tryin’ ta loot the place!”

It’s Billy. You thought he left, but apparently not. He just made it look like he did and barricaded himself inside.

“Alright you looting shit stain, you better just get the fuck outta here right now, ‘fore you find yourself with a new hole in your chest!” Billy says from inside.
“Whoa Billy it’s me! I used to shop here! Come on open up, I’m not a looter!” you reply.
“…(sigh) hold on, and back away from the goddamn door.”

You back away as Billy presumably moves whatever was still blocking the door. When he finally opens it up, he stands in the doorway still pointing his shotgun at you.

“Damnation boy, I coulda blown your head off! You fuckin’ destroyed my lock! What the hell are you wearin’?” Billy asks looking at your silly form of protection.
“I’m sorry; I thought you abandoned this place.”
“Oh and that gave you the excuse to break in? What’re you think yer doin’ anyway? Why aren’t you in your shelter or something?”
“Cause I don’t have one that’s why! I was going to see if this place had any supplies and maybe stay here, if it wasn’t in bad condition.”
“Oh. Well, sorry to crush yer dreams, but this place is still occupied and OWNED by me. You’re gonna have to skedaddle. Just enough supplies for me and my wife.”
“But…”
“No buts! Now you were a good customer an’ all, but this is a new world and the rules have severely changed! It’s all about survival now. And it’s not my fault your ass didn’t prepare for somethin’ that was comin’ for a long time! Now if you don’t leave now I’m gonna be less understanding about this lack of judgment on your part. Bye and good luck.”
“No wait!”

At this point Billy slams the door shut mumbling about the lock being destroyed and going to have to fix it. Billy must have some sort of private bomb shelter of his own, if he barricaded himself inside his own store. One that must be stocked pretty well to sustain him and his wife for a good amount of time.

An idea races through your head that you never thought you’d consider, well not before the nukes hit anyway, but Billy’s statement of “This is about survival” rings true. It IS about survival, and not just his.

You don’t really want to do this, but you feel like you have no other choice.

Billy is still trying to barricade the door, when you take another forceful charge into it.
Your attempt is successful this time as it flies open causing Billy to fall and drop the heavy box he was going to place in front of it. The box half lands on Billy causing him crushing pain while he struggles to grab his shotgun from the floor. You’re quicker though and point your own pistol at him.

“Don’t grab that shotgun Billy…I don’t want to kill you.” you say
“Goddamn sonofabitch, you ain’t taking this…”
“Billy what’s… OH MY GOD!”

When you hear Martha’s outburst, it startles you during this already tense moment, you end up turning around and firing. You hit Martha square in the chest; she looks down briefly in shock before falling over dead. You’re a little in shock yourself.

“MARTHA!” Billy screams, causing you to face him once more, he’s now actually grabbed the shotgun, and you begin babbling.

“Oh God! Oh man! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to do that! She came up and…Billy don’t do that…I don’t want to…please…”

You fire again, hitting Billy in the head, splattering his brains all over the floor and killing him instantly.

You feel sick and promptly run outside to vomit. You’ve never killed anyone before, though you don’t think it was that, that made you sick. It was the fact you murdered two people who were really innocent. You were the trespasser and when you couldn’t get what you wanted, you took it by force. You acted like a criminal even if there’s no such thing as “law” anymore. You sit down in a daze for a few minute trying to take all this in, before realizing you have to take care of some clean up first.

You remove the bodies of Billy and Martha from the store. (You also remove your silly “protection wear”, well except the dishwashing gloves for moving the bodies) You wonder where you’re going put them, but eventually you decide to just dump them in the wilderness nearby, you figure nature will take its course.

You go back to the store and re-barricade it. The store itself is empty, but in a back room, you discover a trapdoor. You descend and discover a large shelter with a treasure of food and water supplies, along with other useful items like first aid kits. Looks like Billy was more prepared than you could’ve imagined. One necessity you’re glad to find is a bathroom facility with a sink and toilet, there’s a little bit of water seeping from the cracks of the walls. Billy must’ve hit the jackpot and found an underground water source and built a crude plumbing system. He’s also installed a small hydro generator which would explain how come there’s dim lighting down here.

Finally you see some survivalist books Billy had on a small bookshelf by a bed and a couple of hunting rifles along with ammunition for them and the shotgun you’ve recently acquired as well.

Well you’re certainly set up, and all you had to do was kill an old couple. As you lie down on the bed you think about your actions in greater depth now. You’re not sure how to feel. Part of you wants to feel bad, but somehow you can’t make yourself feel as bad as you probably should. In fact you’re already starting to rationalize your actions. The first murder was a mistake, and the second one was self-defense.

“And this is survival.” You say and fall asleep.

The next day you wake up, you feel the most refreshed than you have in a long time.

Something has changed within you. You don’t recognize immediately, but as a few months go by you begin to.

Granted you were never a big one for human contact, anti-social and reclusive even, but this “line” you’ve crossed recently, your continued isolation, and the absence of civilization have made you become a little unhinged.

You also start becoming paranoid, about other people stumbling across your new place and attempt to break in and take it like you did. Using the knowledge you’ve been getting from the survivalist books, you start setting up traps, inside and outside the store. One time, you spend just about a whole day doing that. When the darkness approaches you go back to your underground haven to descend further into quiet madness, before you fall asleep.

Suddenly in the middle of the night you hear a noise and a scream from above. Sounds like it’s coming from outside and from more than one person. You immediately grab your shotgun and head upstairs.

After going through the typical routine of taking down the barricades, you open the door and see a family in panic. A man is lying on the ground yelling in pain from the snap trap that has obviously broken his leg. A woman and a little boy are screaming frantically and totally clueless of what to do in this situation.

Looks like your traps work.

The family hasn’t seen you yet and don’t know your intentions, come to think of it, you aren’t even sure of your intentions…
> You finish them off
Obviously they thought they could just stroll in and take shelter here, bad mistake on
their part…

You calmly point the shotgun at the man caught in the trap and blast him before he even notices you. The little boy now really begins screaming, but the woman just becomes silent and falls into shock turning her head in your direction covered in the blood of her husband.

You don’t feel sick like you did last time; you do feel an overwhelming sense of power though.

The woman grabs her son’s hand and turns to run, but realizes two seconds later that she’s only holding on to his hand and the rest of him is lying on the ground, one arm less, from your second blast.

“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!” the woman screams.
“Because I can, and there’s nobody around to stop me.” You say and briskly walk over to the woman. After a pathetic struggle you knock her out and drag her into your new home.

After all, you’re not sure when you’ll get to see another woman again…

A couple days after the incident with the family (and disposing of all three bodies) you begin keeping yourself in better shape. You start exercising regularly, and fixing up your home. You need to be prepared, in case more people ever show up. You MUST defend yourself and your home. You don’t get many, but every now and then another poor soul stumbles across your death lair. You’re merciless. Soon you begin to arrange the vehicles of your victims to form a semi “wall” around your home and place some grisly totems as “decoration”.

A year passes…

You don’t get visitors anymore, though that’s probably because of the unfriendly image you’ve projected with all the skulls you’ve stuck on the spikes outside. Part of you is glad that you aren’t being disturbed anymore, but the other part misses the killing. You begin to wonder if you shouldn’t start venturing out more, but you’d hate to leave your home.

One day you’re awakened by the roar of motorcycles. You’ve got visitors again, you ready your weapons. As you head upstairs you hear that inevitable “SNAP!” sound followed by screaming. Yet another victim to your traps, though you hear the typical sounds of distress, you also hear some laughter, taunting even, which has got you more curious than anything.

You check through a little peephole you made and see a bunch of biker types, one is lying on the ground, his leg nearly severed by the hidden bear trap. While one is trying to free him, a couple of the others are just laughing and remarking about how it looks like it really hurts.

“AAAAAARGH! AGHHH!”
“Look are you assholes going to help or not?” one of them asks.
“Hey, I told you fuckers not to go traipsing into a place that has skulls stuck on stakes. Y’all should’ve known it wasn’t exactly going to be a friendly place.”
“We need fuckin’ gas Jim, and this place has a lot of vehicles, and maybe some of them have gas. We had to go check!”
“Well yeah, but that didn’t mean just walking around unaware of your surroundings…shit that leg looks bad.”
“GET IT OFF! AAAAHHHH!”

“That leg is bad. Even if you did get it off of him, he’s probably going to lose it to infection. I wiped my own shit on it, not to mention it was developing a nice set of rust on it when I found it.  I’d say his bike riding days are over.” You say standing your doorway with your shotgun ready. The bikers look in your direction, one looks like he’s going to pull his pistol, but the one called Jim stops him. He’s obviously the leader.

“You might be right, stranger, but that still leaves you outnumbered one to three. You sure you wanna take those odds?” Jim says.
“I’ll take ‘em and I’ll enjoy it. It’s been a long time since I’ve killed a whole mess of people.”
“Oh, so you’re a REAL killer eh?”
“Better killer than you.”
“Hah! I doubt that! See me an’ the boys here have been raisin’ hell where ever we can. Come across a few towns and let’s just say we’re not real welcome there anymore. It’s a brand new world, and only the strong are gonna survive it.”
“Yeah? Well it looks like one of your flock isn’t so strong now.”
“Yeah…well you might be right about that stranger…maybe someone should put him out of his misery. Can’t very well ride with one leg, that’d be kind of silly.”

The biker trying to help speaks up.

“Oh come on Jim man! Clyde here saved all of our asses about a month ago!”
“Yeah? Well what has he done for us lately? The stranger’s right, we gotta put him down, it’s the kind thing to do really. You gonna do it, Dan?”
“No…I…mean…well…”
“Pussy. Nevermind. Ramon you gonna do it?”
“Shit yeah! Here hold on, oh fuck.” Ramon says pulling out his pistol and then dropping it on the ground. Jim just shakes his head.

“Ramon, its amazing you’ve even lasted this long with your clumsy ass. Fuck it, I’LL do it.”
> You let Jim kill Clyde
As strange as it may seem, you’re kind of glad for the company believe it or not, so you’d rather just let this play out and see where it leads. You can always kill them all later.

Meanwhile Jim is pointing his gun at Clyde’s head in an overly dramatic manner.

“Alright Clyde you knew the risks. No begging or pleadin’ now.”
“Come on Jim! Don’t do this! I can still ride…I’ll…”
“Goddamn it, get a fuckin’ hold of yourself you fuckin’ sissy! Fuck, I was givin’ you a chance to go out like a man! Guess you fucked that up. Die bitch!”

Jim blows Clyde’s brains out, and turns his attention back to you.

“Can’t say I didn’t give him a fair chance.”
“Yes…so what do you have planned now?” you ask, forming an idea in your mind.
“Planned? Ha ha! We don’t do a whole lotta planning, we just kinda roam from place to place causing meaningless violence! I think there’s a town around in this area somewhere…”
“You probably should look for a more reliable fuel source, if you’re going to continue with this line of work.”
“Yeah, well we’ll be good after Ramon here sucks out the remaining gas from this vehicle graveyard you got here. I trust YOU won’t have a problem with that right?”
“I’m sucking what?!” Ramon says with a surprised look on his face.
“No, I don’t have a problem with it, but what happens when that runs out? Are you going hope you find some more in your travels?”
“It’s worked so far…what the hell are you getting at?”
“Instead of spreading meaningless violence on a small scale, how about spreading meaningful violence on a grand scale for a change?”

You explain how you’ve been reading in the survivalist books about how to create a still, except not being a drinker; you never felt the need to create one. However that same cheap hooch could probably work as a substitute for real gas, if certain modifications were made to the vehicles. Basically the vehicles would be running on “garbage” given that’s what the booze is made out of. It would smell horrible, but you get the impression that Jim and his boys wouldn’t know the difference anyway. You begin to explain even more technical aspects as well, but you soon realize it’s too much to process for them, so you stop before their heads explode.

They do realize you seem to be a lot smarter than the rest of them though, so they agree to your “grand” plan. You tell one of them that they should drive to the nearest town by themselves, try to get a feel of the place, to scout the entire place out, find out what the defenses are and all of that.

Ultimately Dan is chosen for this task since he can actually come off as being a nice guy. You give him some canned food and some bottled water you have. You explain that he should use the stuff as something to barter with, so it looks like he’s just a wandering traveler.

While Dan goes and does some scouting, you get to work on the still and Jim and Ramon, work on their altering their bikes (At least they know how to do that) a few days pass and you all generally start getting along. Unsurprisingly Jim and the rest of his gang were criminals even before the bombs dropped. You lie and say you were in the life of crime as well, nothing too specific though and just common and vague enough for Jim to believe. Of course all the people you killed after the bombs, you don’t need to lie about at all.

When Dan comes back, he does so with some interesting news. He mentions the closest town is Cinderville. He mentions it’s not a completely harmonious town and it does have its rougher elements, but the local law enforcement is still in control of the place and relies on a vigilante mindset of some of the townspeople. Apparently they’re trying to keep the resemblance of the “old world”. He mentions there’s another gang that hangs around the outskirts of it which attempts raids every now and then, but they’re poorly lead. Finally he states they have a small farming area with animals like cows and pigs. Not all for eating, but to mainly produce shit for biofuel to run the law enforcement vehicles.

Originally you were just thinking you could strike hard and fast and get out, every few months to break up the monotony, with the still to keep your vehicle running so you could engage in this behavior. But with this new information, of other gangs in the area and bad elements in the actual little oasis of civilization, you wonder if you couldn’t actually take over the town, at the very least you could destabilize it. The biofuel center wouldn’t be a bad acquisition either. You’re confident you can pull this off, you just need more help.
> You recruit some of the locals
You decide that the locals have more intimate knowledge of the town and would probably be better to enlist help from. You suggest that you all go to Cinderville and do just that.

After re-trapping your home, and gathering what supplies you think you’ll need, you and the bikers all take a trip to Cinderville (You take your Van). After about a day of traveling you arrive at the place.

However you don’t get very far. The townsfolk remember Dan, and the cops were watching him the whole time he entered town. They didn’t really buy his whole “wandering traveler” act and neither did most other people. They figured he was up to no good. So when all of you come rolling in, the cops instantly arrive and tell you to leave immediately.

Normally you might’ve done that and come up with another strategy, but Jim begins revving up his cycle and shooting at the fuckers and disregards whatever plan you had. His boys follow suit.

After seeing Ramon getting his head blown off and Jim get shot off his bike, you have no intention of sharing that fate, so you swerve to turn the van around…which promptly dies on the spot.

“SHIT! GODDAMN IT! I JUST FIXED IT!” you shout beating on the wheel.
“GIVE UP, ALL YOUR LOWLIFE BUDDIES ARE DEAD! GET OUTTA THE VAN NOW ASSHOLE!” you hear one of the cops shout in a bullhorn.

Do they really expect you to give up? This is a brand new world, the cops don’t need to put anyone in jail anymore; they can just shoot criminals. Not to mention, Dan had mentioned a vigilante mindset of the common townsfolk. They probably have every intention in hanging your ass, assuming they don’t shoot you immediately after you give up.

Fuck it; you ain’t going out without a fight. Hell maybe you’ll even get back home, probably not. (Sigh) you think maybe you should’ve just stayed in your nice home waylaying wanderers when they came by. Too late for that now though.

You grab the hunting rifle and put it on your back, check your pistol, and grab your shotgun to be your primary weapon. You take a deep breath and open up sliding door of your van and blast the first pig you see and make a break for it.

You manage to get a few blocks with the cops in pursuit, before one of the neighborhood “Rambos” shoots at you, hitting you in the leg. You fall to the street hard, dropping your shotgun which spirals out of your hand several feet from you. You get some pay back by blasting the shithead who shot you in the leg when he came closer to confirm the “kill”.

You struggle to stand up, only to get hit by a fucking police car fully intent on running you down, except you go flying in the air instead and land on your face again with a pair of broken legs now. The car stops and a police woman with dreadlocks gets out, she shoots you in the arm, when you attempt to go for your pistol.

“You’re under arrest suga!” she says in a high voice.

You merely turn to look at her, and laugh at the absurdity of it all.

“Fuck you bitch.”
“You wish honey!”

And with that last snappy come back, she decides that you were resisting arrest and shoots you.


As strange as it may seem, you’re kind of glad for the company believe it or not, so you’d rather just let this play out and see where it leads. You can always kill them all later.

Meanwhile Jim is pointing his gun at Clyde’s head in an overly dramatic manner.

“Alright Clyde you knew the risks. No begging or pleadin’ now.”
“Come on Jim! Don’t do this! I can still ride…I’ll…”
“Goddamn it, get a fuckin’ hold of yourself you fuckin’ sissy! Fuck, I was givin’ you a chance to go out like a man! Guess you fucked that up. Die bitch!”

Jim blows Clyde’s brains out, and turns his attention back to you.

“Can’t say I didn’t give him a fair chance.”
“Yes…so what do you have planned now?” you ask, forming an idea in your mind.
“Planned? Ha ha! We don’t do a whole lotta planning, we just kinda roam from place to place causing meaningless violence! I think there’s a town around in this area somewhere…”
“You probably should look for a more reliable fuel source, if you’re going to continue with this line of work.”
“Yeah, well we’ll be good after Ramon here sucks out the remaining gas from this vehicle graveyard you got here. I trust YOU won’t have a problem with that right?”
“I’m sucking what?!” Ramon says with a surprised look on his face.
“No, I don’t have a problem with it, but what happens when that runs out? Are you going hope you find some more in your travels?”
“It’s worked so far…what the hell are you getting at?”
“Instead of spreading meaningless violence on a small scale, how about spreading meaningful violence on a grand scale for a change?”

You explain how you’ve been reading in the survivalist books about how to create a still, except not being a drinker; you never felt the need to create one. However that same cheap hooch could probably work as a substitute for real gas, if certain modifications were made to the vehicles. Basically the vehicles would be running on “garbage” given that’s what the booze is made out of. It would smell horrible, but you get the impression that Jim and his boys wouldn’t know the difference anyway. You begin to explain even more technical aspects as well, but you soon realize it’s too much to process for them, so you stop before their heads explode.

They do realize you seem to be a lot smarter than the rest of them though, so they agree to your “grand” plan. You tell one of them that they should drive to the nearest town by themselves, try to get a feel of the place, to scout the entire place out, find out what the defenses are and all of that.

Ultimately Dan is chosen for this task since he can actually come off as being a nice guy. You give him some canned food and some bottled water you have. You explain that he should use the stuff as something to barter with, so it looks like he’s just a wandering traveler.

While Dan goes and does some scouting, you get to work on the still and Jim and Ramon, work on their altering their bikes (At least they know how to do that) a few days pass and you all generally start getting along. Unsurprisingly Jim and the rest of his gang were criminals even before the bombs dropped. You lie and say you were in the life of crime as well, nothing too specific though and just common and vague enough for Jim to believe. Of course all the people you killed after the bombs, you don’t need to lie about at all.

When Dan comes back, he does so with some interesting news. He mentions the closest town is Cinderville. He mentions it’s not a completely harmonious town and it does have its rougher elements, but the local law enforcement is still in control of the place and relies on a vigilante mindset of some of the townspeople. Apparently they’re trying to keep the resemblance of the “old world”. He mentions there’s another gang that hangs around the outskirts of it which attempts raids every now and then, but they’re poorly lead. Finally he states they have a small farming area with animals like cows and pigs. Not all for eating, but to mainly produce shit for biofuel to run the law enforcement vehicles.

Originally you were just thinking you could strike hard and fast and get out, every few months to break up the monotony, with the still to keep your vehicle running so you could engage in this behavior. But with this new information, of other gangs in the area and bad elements in the actual little oasis of civilization, you wonder if you couldn’t actually take over the town, at the very least you could destabilize it. The biofuel center wouldn’t be a bad acquisition either. You’re confident you can pull this off, you just need more help.
> You approach the raiders
Entering the town again, wouldn’t be a good idea. From the sound of it, the town is suspicious of outsiders, if Dan showed up again with the lot of you; they’d know something was up. Not to mention he was the most “presentable” of all of you. You figure the raiders might be a better choice. If they’re poorly led, then maybe just taking care of the leader will make the rest fall in line.

“Alright Dan, you know where the raiders hang out?” you ask.
“Um, not exactly, but its somewhere in the hills near Cinderville.”
“Okay let’s go there. We can probably kick the leader’s ass and…”

Jim all of sudden stops you in mid-sentence.

“Hold up, brain boy. I know you got all these great ideas, and you seem to be a pretty ruthless sonofabitch, and I respect that, but let’s keep in mind that I’M running this fuckin’ gang. Don’t presume you can just order us all around about what we’re going to do.” He tells you in an authoritative voice and implies bodily harm if you disagree with him.

(Sigh) You had a feeling this was going to happen.
> You kill Jim
“Y’know what, you’re right Jim, you shouldn’t have to take orders from me.”
“Good, I’m glad we understand each other.”
“That’s why you won’t be around to do it any longer!”

Before anyone can do anything, you draw your pistol and shoot Jim three times in the chest before he falls dead. Ramon and Dan look like they want to react, but don’t.

“Good. Glad to see you guys are smarter than you appear. Now Dan, lead us to the raiders.”

After taking some supplies you think you’ll need and re-trapping your home, you all set off to leave. (You take your van)

In about a day, you arrive around in the area that Dan was talking about, in fact you don’t need to look for the raiders; they instantly approach you when they see you coming. It would appear some of them have a few vehicles as well, you just hope you can pull this off.

You get out of your van and your two new lackeys stop their bikes, they don’t like the looks of this, especially since you’re greatly outnumbered.

“Hey, uh…maybe this isn’t such a good idea…” Ramon says.
“Yeah, when I was in Cinderville, I heard these guys could get pretty crazy.” Dan adds.
“Pfft, these types always fall in line when you display sufficient strength. All I gotta do is challenge the leader to hand to hand combat or some shit. Hell, you fuckers were in prison, you know how this works.” You arrogantly reply.
“Yeah, but even in prison there were rules! I mean there ain’t no rules at all out here! Who says they’re going to accept your challenge?”

With Dan’s last statement, you figure you’ll soon find out when the raiders arrive and stop their own vehicles. The leader steps out of his beat up car, and steps forward. He looks mean enough, like he’s been living in the wasteland from day one.

“So, you got any last words, before we fuck you and eat you?” he asks.
“Yeah, I heard you’re the lame cocksucker, who can’t even handle a few pigs and some wannabe vigilantes in Cinderville.” You reply.

The raider leader’s expression gets even meaner looking if such a thing is possible.

“Oh? And I suppose YOU can do a better job?” he sneers.
“Sure the fuck can, all I need is more people. In fact I’d say yours would do just fine, so are you going to step down from your inept leadership, or am I gonna have to beat the shit outta you and take it?”

After looking at you up and down, he speaks again.

“Shit, I doubt if you could even last five minutes. Fuck this; I’m not wasting my time. Kill these assholes.”

As soon as he says those words, you immediately turn to run, ducking and trying to get into your van, but in the shooting, the raiders hit the van’s front tires by the time you make it inside. Dan and Ramon speed off, with some of the raiders in pursuit, while you attempt to drive in reverse and turn around on flat tires.

The raider leader rams your van with his own car, which has been fitted with extra plating. Eventually in the mayhem of the ramming, shooting and swerving around on flat tires on an incline, you roll the van over and over down the hill. It’s amazing that you don’t get killed and the van didn’t blow up.

You however aren’t in such great shape. You barely manage to crawl from your wrecked van, and when you do, the raider leader arrives in his own car just in time to finish you off.

He finds you crawling on the ground, when he opens up his door to point a sawed off shotgun in your face and pull the trigger.