You have the horde, the ability to use them and you even have a reasonable plan, why wait?

You head down into the basement on the premise of getting checkup by the doc and even get a few comments from the guards about them being glad you are feeling better. What a surprise it was going to be for them. Once in his office, you left him swing the door shut then, while his back is still turned you snap his neck from behind. “Huh, much easier than expected” you think as you carefully move his body out of sight from the corridor.

You give it a few minutes then exit the office, closing the door behind you and head back out to the two waiting guards who unbolt the door for you and let you through. “Clean bill of health then?” one asks.

You smile as you reply “Better than ever!” You punch him in the throat, planning just to crush the wind pipe but you feel his spine snap at the impact as you move to the next guard, you have your hand over his mouth and his neck snapped before the first even hits the floor. You quickly glance down at your hands before grabbing them both and half carry them down to the doc’s office to hide them.

“Ok I was fast and strong before but this is on a whole new level. Guess advancing my other powers is helping my body too.” You think as you take the locks off the cell doors and let the four shamblers out. Number 4 is barely able to walk and two are half starved so you let them join you in feeding on the Doc. And the guards while you slowly make your horde move into position.

Once you are finished you move with your little team of shamblers to the base of the stairs that lead up to the stadium and wait while your little horde surrounds the stadium, everywhere there are balconies that could lead inside.

It’s just before lunch when you start the attack, shamblers and fast types moving out of the alleys and towards the stadium as fast of each of them is able. You immediately hear gunshots ringing out from the front balconies along with occasional booms indicating the 50cal. Sniper is getting involved too. The flanks are slower to react though like you predicted and your horde is already reaching the ditches and barricades by the time they open fire.

You can feel large numbers of your horde dropping dead or injured now but you press them forward, each one that falls increases your fine control over the rest and with your guidance they are moving through the defenses at a good speed.

The fast types reach the flanks about the time you realize the front is lost, two thirds of the infected there are already down and more drop every second. Seems the military guys on gate duty today are no slouches.

You quickly try and read where the normal are and find haziness moving towards all parts of the stadium with two coming your way. The reinforcements are reacting already, that’s not the best news but you have fast types climbing up to the side balconies right now and you feel them taking down a couple of guards on the right side before the others get there.
> You ambush the two near you and keep hidden for now, wait for the right moment.
You don’t want to play your hand just yet so you wait and concentrate on controlling the right flank now that they had made the balcony. Concentrating on them so much will lose you control elsewhere but the front group is almost entirely gone and the left flank is having huge issues climbing up so it’s the best choice for now.

You have them hide either side of the door as the first of the shamblers starts to reach the top of the rubble and attempt to get over the balcony rail. The guards take the bait and rush forward, shooting the shamblers in front of them the moment they arrive and you have the hidden infected ambush them. You still lose one of them, but that’s two fast ones inside and more following up with the shamblers.

You move to the side as you sense the guards heading down the stairs to you and quickly, but brutally dispatch them the second the round the corner. Can’t have them raising the alarm on you now. You hear a low rumbling from the back of the stadium but have to ignore it for the moment, it’s probably a generator or something and right now you have to get rid of the military guys at the front balconies. You sense no-one nearby so you head up the stairs as quickly as you can make your group move and start slipping between the shacks and tents toward the front.

You hear the rumble getting louder and realize where you recognize it from. It’s a car engine, and a powerful one at that. You haven’t heard a working one in years. You speed up and direct your forces from the right to swarm down inside then up towards the front balcony to take them out before whatever type of car it is gets involved but you are too late.

You hear the sound of a heavy machine gun opening up and instantly feel your force on the right flank go down, you have more coming but all your fast types in the stadium just got taken out in seconds and you are left trapped between the big gun and the balcony.
> You rush the big gun, so long as it's around, you are doomed
You send your four shamblers to the side a little then have them charge towards the vehicle as you circle round a little as quickly as you can before attacking from its flank.

You immediately see that it is a fully armored military jeep with a 50cal. On the roof which tears through your distraction in seconds. With your new found speed though, it’s enough for you to cover the ground necessary for you to launch yourself at the jeep, landing on the roof and grabbing the gunner before he can turn to face you.

You are about to let of a whoop of elation and kill him when you hear a strange voice in your head.

“Close, but you forgot to account for the Captain, he is not a stupid man.” You get the urgent sense that you should look right, and see the captain and several others in full military garb hiding behind the shacks and pointing rifles at you. They don’t give you a chance to dodge before firing.

The last thing you feel is the voice in your head again. “Of course he knew that the jeep was the lynch-pin so he guarded it with his best men.”


You don’t want to play your hand just yet so you wait and concentrate on controlling the right flank now that they had made the balcony. Concentrating on them so much will lose you control elsewhere but the front group is almost entirely gone and the left flank is having huge issues climbing up so it’s the best choice for now.

You have them hide either side of the door as the first of the shamblers starts to reach the top of the rubble and attempt to get over the balcony rail. The guards take the bait and rush forward, shooting the shamblers in front of them the moment they arrive and you have the hidden infected ambush them. You still lose one of them, but that’s two fast ones inside and more following up with the shamblers.

You move to the side as you sense the guards heading down the stairs to you and quickly, but brutally dispatch them the second the round the corner. Can’t have them raising the alarm on you now. You hear a low rumbling from the back of the stadium but have to ignore it for the moment, it’s probably a generator or something and right now you have to get rid of the military guys at the front balconies. You sense no-one nearby so you head up the stairs as quickly as you can make your group move and start slipping between the shacks and tents toward the front.

You hear the rumble getting louder and realize where you recognize it from. It’s a car engine, and a powerful one at that. You haven’t heard a working one in years. You speed up and direct your forces from the right to swarm down inside then up towards the front balcony to take them out before whatever type of car it is gets involved but you are too late.

You hear the sound of a heavy machine gun opening up and instantly feel your force on the right flank go down, you have more coming but all your fast types in the stadium just got taken out in seconds and you are left trapped between the big gun and the balcony.
> You rush the balcony; if you take it out you can get more infected inside to deal with the big gun.
You know you can’t take the heavy gun on with only four shamblers so you rush for the front balcony instead, aiming to get to the highest one you can attack the ones below from there and they will never expect it.

You can’t move at speed with the shamblers following so you send them to the left to see if they can do damage there but just as you reach the stairs up you feel them go down as you hear the heavy gun again. Glancing behind you, you see a fully armored military jeep parked right in the middle of the stadium with its 50cal. Now turning towards you. You use all the speed you can and manage to dive out of the way before it opens fire and you see the stairs where you hand been a moment before erupt into a shower of debris.

“Now what do I do.” You think to yourself as you hide behind a pillar. “I would try running away if I were you, this little attack isn’t working out for you.” Comes the unbidden reply into your mind. You pause speechless for a moment “What the hell, my mind is talking to me now, are you the source of my powers?” You think at the air in front of you. You sense laughter in the response. “Oh dear me no, that did make me laugh! I’m simply another gifted, although significantly more powerful than a fledgling like yourself. I was hoping you’d accept my invitation to meet and discuss the stadium but you had to go and take this rash course instead. Well if you survive then come find me, I’m to your South. I doubt you will though.”

You get the feeling that whoever it was has gone so you concentrate on your current predicament. You’re now surrounded, you’re covered with human blood since you were feeding on corpses and you attack is failing.

All that’s left is to trust in your speed. You crouch then move right into a full sprint up the rest of the stairs, you hear the big gun starting to fire behind you but the bullets don’t find you until you have reached the balcony, you feel one tearing clean through your leg but dive through the doors and the shooting stops. Sadly this particular balcony is full of heavily armed soldiers. You manage to take three of them down before the others get shots on you and you slowly go down, bleeding from multiple bullet holes.

“Ah, thought so.” You hear in your mind before it goes blank.


When morning comes you wake slowly and groggily, the last remnants of your headache still present however you immediately notice that you can sense your horde still milling about where you left them. You can even sense some of the stragglers further back that you had lost control of last night due to the pain.

Trying to direct them right now is out of the question though as you know you over-did it the day before and you don’t want to risk any more bleeding incidents right now, there is only so many times you can lose half a pint of blood from your nose before people realize something is wrong.

You find the Doc waiting for you at breakfast to check on your condition. “I heard you looked like death last night, one of the guards almost shot you before your team convinced him that you were ok and hadn’t been bitten.”

You think fairly carefully before replying. “Yeh, I think it might just have been a bit soon after losing my other team, I thought being back out there might help me get over it but I guess it had the opposite reaction. Feeling better today but still got a headache so might be best if I rest for a bit.”

The Doc nods and goes to chat with the Capt. who comes over. “We saw things like this back in the wars so don’t worry too much about it, it should mostly pass in a day or two, just let the doc here know if you start feeling overly paranoid or having flashbacks in the next week. You and your team brought back a huge haul of tins and supplies so don’t worry about the scavenging or other duties for a few days either.”

He heads off and you finally relax. They were giving you exactly what you needed to destroy them.

You head back to your tent with full permission to do nothing for a couple of days and fall asleep again, waking about lunchtime with your headache finally gone.

You do however notice that one of the hazy blobs that mark a normal is still hanging around near your tent exactly where it was when you went to sleep. “Seems they are having me followed” You think “best act as normal as possible for a bit then”

You head outside and see some of the guys you are friendlier with eating so you head over to join them, and sure enough your shadow follows, you never catch a glimpse of him so he must be one of the military ones or just very good at following people “Maybe they put an ex-stalker after me” you think with a laugh as you start joining in the conversation over lunch.

By the next morning of acting normal again your shadow vanishes and you feel up to flexing your powers again. You reach out to your horde and find that, as expected, it’s simple to control them all at once now. “So keep pushing the limits, but not too far or for too long” You think to yourself as you plan your next move.
> You wait for nightfall then sneak them in slowly. Attack once you have a good force inside
Your stalker is gone, headache is gone and you can now control a horde easily. What more could you want from life? To wipe out this little holdout of normals of course!

You don’t want to rush things too much though; no sense attacking in the day when they defenders can all easily see and shoot your horde from far away, nighttime is the best option. You spend the rest of the day acting nice and chatting with people; you get several comments about how much better you are looking and always thank the person a lot and say how you think you’ll be back out there in no time. All the while you move your horde slowly closer to the stadium, until finally just before sunset they are hidden a single street away from the start of the barricades.

You pretend to head to sleep for the night and wait for several hours. About 2am most people get sleepy whether or not they slept during the day so you wait until then and finally sneak out of your tent, heading towards the right-hand balcony Grabbing a combat knife along the way. Some fallen rubble means that your horde should easily be able to climb in there and there aren’t usually too many guards.

You get close and almost get onto the balcony itself before you are challenged by the guards there. “Who’s that moving back there?” they call back to you in a not entirely unfriendly voice, your Inside the stadium after all.

“Hey man, it’s just me.” You say stepping out into the moonlight. “Couldn’t sleep you know, remembering the other day.” The guard nods, probably thinking of his own nightmares fueled by watching people he knew killed. “Well you’re welcome to join us out here, it’s just me and Daed here tonight and I’ve heard his stories far too many times. Daed gives you a wave then does back to staring out into the darkness.

You smile and lean back against the door frame, behind the two of them. “Thanks man, but I’m not sure I’ve heard all his stories yet.” You hear a groan from the first guard as Daed immediately starts into a story about when he was riding his motorcycle.

You let him talk away as the other man shakes his head and looks out into the darkness, leaving both of their backs to you. It’s almost too east from there. You move quietly and stab the first guard in the neck, jumping over to Daed and putting your hand over his mouth before he has time to shout. A quick stab and he dies too leaving you alone on the moonlit balcony. You quickly start calling your horde in small groups to ensure they make as little noise as possible and after a few minutes the first group is climbing up with you.
> You have a handful of fast ones and a handful of shamblers, strike now as the others make their way up. You can take out most of the other guards as the rest of your horde gets inside.
You gather your ready infected and head right back down the stairs from the balcony; from here you can send the fast ones to one front side balcony while you attack another then re-group to attack the rest, by that time a large number of infected should be ready to sweep down over the living areas.

You make it half way down the stairs at the front of your group before realizing that something is wrong, there are far too many hazy areas moving around in the center of the stadium and ahead of you. You try and concentrate but can’t make out more details of what is going on in the near complete darkness of the interior.  You wait a few moments for your eyes to adjust so you can see what’s happening when you realize your mistake.

You hear a barely audible whirring noise as your eyes adjust enough to realize that there is a huge armored jeep parked right in the middle of the stadium’s open area and its gun is both spinning, and pointed your way.

They had taken the obvious follower off you but they must have still been keeping an eye on you, you think as the Jeeps gun opens fire. You dive to the side into a row of seats as you feel your small group of infected getting torn apart by the high caliber bullets. You try and think of where to run when you hear the separate boom at the same time as a hole appears in a seat in front of you and you feel a huge impact in your side. The dam 50cal. Sniper just shot you right through your cover.

You try and run back to the balcony but you are already wounded and barely make it two feet before the second boom rings out and a hole appears in your chest.


Your stalker is gone, headache is gone and you can now control a horde easily. What more could you want from life? To wipe out this little holdout of normals of course!

You don’t want to rush things too much though; no sense attacking in the day when they defenders can all easily see and shoot your horde from far away, nighttime is the best option. You spend the rest of the day acting nice and chatting with people; you get several comments about how much better you are looking and always thank the person a lot and say how you think you’ll be back out there in no time. All the while you move your horde slowly closer to the stadium, until finally just before sunset they are hidden a single street away from the start of the barricades.

You pretend to head to sleep for the night and wait for several hours. About 2am most people get sleepy whether or not they slept during the day so you wait until then and finally sneak out of your tent, heading towards the right-hand balcony Grabbing a combat knife along the way. Some fallen rubble means that your horde should easily be able to climb in there and there aren’t usually too many guards.

You get close and almost get onto the balcony itself before you are challenged by the guards there. “Who’s that moving back there?” they call back to you in a not entirely unfriendly voice, your Inside the stadium after all.

“Hey man, it’s just me.” You say stepping out into the moonlight. “Couldn’t sleep you know, remembering the other day.” The guard nods, probably thinking of his own nightmares fueled by watching people he knew killed. “Well you’re welcome to join us out here, it’s just me and Daed here tonight and I’ve heard his stories far too many times. Daed gives you a wave then does back to staring out into the darkness.

You smile and lean back against the door frame, behind the two of them. “Thanks man, but I’m not sure I’ve heard all his stories yet.” You hear a groan from the first guard as Daed immediately starts into a story about when he was riding his motorcycle.

You let him talk away as the other man shakes his head and looks out into the darkness, leaving both of their backs to you. It’s almost too east from there. You move quietly and stab the first guard in the neck, jumping over to Daed and putting your hand over his mouth before he has time to shout. A quick stab and he dies too leaving you alone on the moonlit balcony. You quickly start calling your horde in small groups to ensure they make as little noise as possible and after a few minutes the first group is climbing up with you.
> You wait for the rest of your horde, you have time before the guard change and it will be safer to swarm everything at once.
There is no point in rushing now, you’re horde is climbing up and will soon be strong enough to swarm over the sleeping areas while you took the fastest ones to help with the other balconies. It’s only a few minutes before the balcony is getting full and you do a quick check ahead, trying to sense out the best targets you send the horde after.

You immediately realize something is wrong, there is an awful lot of movement going on down there for the middle of the night, you edge through the doorway and carefully keep to cover while you let your eye adjust and look out.

You quickly realize that there is something large in the middle of the previously empty space in the stadium and there are a lot of men out with guns, all in a nice big semi-circle around the stairs you were about to walk down.

“They must have had someone still keeping an eye on me” You think as you back carefully back onto the balcony. It really doesn’t look like you can do much more here, you’re going to have to escape.

You take more immediate control of the infected on the balcony, packed in as they are you have two dozen up here and more still climbing so you send they rushing down at the defenders, maybe they will be surprised and get over-run, worth a try after all.

You almost instantly feel them getting torn apart as you hear what sounds like a heavy machine gun open fire. Punctuated now and them by a single boom which always co-insided with one of the infected dying from a huge wound to the chest.

You swear to yourself as you realize that every one of them was killed in seconds and didn’t even get close to the defenders. You quickly climb down outside the stadium and set off at a run to try and put some distance between you and it. You leave the infected trying to climb inside as a distraction so you aren’t followed immediately.


The second mission begins the same as the first, a team of 4 sent out to check an old store you think might still have some supplies in it. This one is a little further away but it’s to the West and away from the city center so your team is confident that they won’t run into too much trouble.

You set out happily, planning on testing your ability to make the shamblers do more complicated tasks when you quickly sense something slightly different from before, similar to a shambler but… more complicated, where the shambler feels like the last remnants of a broken and dead mind this feels more like a mind that has been twisted and shattered, but not yet dying. You concentrate on it hard for the next few minutes as you walk and realize that it’s moving about, jumping or running from spot to spot. It must be one of the fast ones or crazies.

You walk onwards and soon move out of your range to sense it but an hour or so later you sense another one ahead of you. “As if my test subjects were lining up for me” You joke to yourself as you begin trying to affect its mind. You go through the process as you had with the shamblers, concentrating on sensing them properly first, then getting an idea of their sensations and finally trying to make it react to your prodding.

It takes you about 2 hours but you finally have a good sense of what to do, its definitely a fast type infected and making them follow simple actions is only slightly different to the shamblers so by the time you reach your destination it’s only a couple of streets away but you have it walking in circles on command.

“Dude, you hit your face of something?” one of the men quietly calls back to you and you realize that you have a nose bleed again. Not as bad as before but you quickly wipe it clean. “Yeh, sorry, I just get them sometimes.” You say as you clean the blood off. “Guess concentrating that hard on the other infected means I miss a lot, going to have to be more careful.” You think.

You quickly realize that you have all arrived at the store, and there are several more infected in the vicinity. You were concentrating so hard on the one that you missed a second fast type not far off and several nearby shamblers. The rest of your team, completely unaware of the danger just streets away, starts to head into the store to check for the supplies.

“I guess I could go for the big test now.” You think to yourself

The team is contained and you can control the infected, you could use them to take them out as the first step to destroying the stadium hold out or you could force them all far away and help the stadium people for now, some of them are treating you like a real friend after all.
> You feed off humans sure, but you aren't controled by that need and you are enjoying having friends for a change. Hold off wiping out the stadium for now
You know, you feed on humans sure, but they are treating you well right now and it is nice to have friends for a change. You can help keep them safe until your powers develop fully at least.

You concentrate hard for a moment and see near instant results, all the infected you concentrate on start moving out of the area. You initially try controlling individual actions and feel your nose bleed returning but after a few moments you relax and just give them the general incentive to move away and they find their own routes.

You quickly wipe your nose and follow the others into the store, projecting the simple command of ‘Move away’ at the infected as you go. From there the mission goes very easily and you all bag a reasonable amount of food to take back with you.

You joke with a couple of the other guys as you all head back about the super easy scavenge when you realize that you’ve been subconsciously projecting the command the entire time, all the shamblers that you get anywhere near immediately begin leaving the area. “It just keeps getting easier.”  You think to yourself as you come close to the stadium. Confident that the only infected within several blocks of the stadium as the ones in the basement you head inside happily with the others and hand over the spoils of your scavenge.
> You happy evenings rest
You rest happily that evening with no infected in sensing range and you only got a minor headache as a response to your new advancement. Even the rations doled out at dinner time taste better and sit more comfortably in your stomach than normal.

The doc comes up to eat and you joke with him about your teams haul improving the food in the stadium getting a laugh out of him before happily spending the rest of the evening chatting with the rest of the scavengers.

You finally head to bed feeling happier than you have in a while, your control of the infected is growing practically by the hour and people are unwittingly accepting you as a friend, how could life get better?

That’s when you sense the movement, its right at the edge of your sensing range while inside the stadium but it feels like a shambler to you, after a few moments it moves a little closer and you become sure. “Stupid thing is trying to stumble back to whatever whole I moved it from.”  You think to yourself.

You barely concentrate as you send it the signal to leave again but find it not reacting at all, sighing you concentrate hard and try again, this time it simply stops and wavers on the spot for a moment. “Huh, did I overdo it earlier?” you think to yourself as you sense it suddenly waving at you, you don’t know how you know it but it definitely waves at you to invite you to follow before turning and walking South again.

“Well that’s odd.”  You think as you watch it vanish along with your immediate plans. “Best bet is that they were right and the original harbinger is back, seems he wants to talk to me too.” The morning will bring a new decision to make.


A quiet ringing wakes you at first light. “Huh a near silent alarm, smatter than a loud one I guess.” You say to yourself as you get ready. You glance through your bag. They had left your last few strips of dried meat in there so you start chowing down on one as you head out. They said you had a few days to decide what you’d be doing but if you chose to stay more than that, then you would have to be useful to them in some way, guard duty and scavenging seemed to be the implied option. You had some time though.
> You enlist with the stadium guards
You head to the shack that was pointed out as the Captain’s room and are about to knock when you find the door open and the man already up and looking at a map of the local city area, he gives you a quick glance before going back to studying the map.

“Made a choice already, most people take a day or two to see if they like it here?”

You think carefully, but the choice is fairly simple for you now. “Yep, been living alone for far too long now and let’s face it, food is getting short. Joining up here and working as a guard and scavenger gives me a much better chance at a steady food supply for the near future and I can sleep safer at night. It’s a no-brainer really.”

He gives you another glance before calling in one of the guards you recognize from the day before.

“We have a new recruit, get him kitted out and test him on weapons, you can start taking him out on missions. Unarmed until he passes his weapons handling, then he can have a rifle.”

You are lead away and the next couple of days pass quickly as you head out on some very close scavenging missions, It’s the 5th day when you get your first real opportunity. You are sent out with three others to scavenge from an old store that the Capt. doesn’t think was totally cleared out yet. You wern’t doing so great on the provided food and you thought that this might be the first opportunity for a proper meal in a while. Most surprisingly however, you think you might be adapting to their rations but it's too early to tell.
> You mission 1
You all head out quietly about an hour after dawn and make your way through the main streets, you don’t have a gun like the others but you do have your bat which you trust a lot more, using it doesn’t cause enough noise to call others to you after all.

“I heard you guys had originally cleared this place out of infected?” you whisper to the nearest guard.

He thinks for a moment before replying. “We had, but then that thing lead hundreds more to us, and what with all the ones bitten again when the walls fell… well let’s just say it’s not as safe as it used to be. Seems the vaccine doesn’t always work too well against direct exposure either, only the airborne strains, some people are immune but others turn right after getting bit.”

You file this information away for later and keep a look-out since you’re nearing the store now and the leader is speaking up.

“Right it's go time, two for the front, two for the rear.”

The front is visible, it’s fairly open and all the large windows are broken giving easy access and sightlines. The rear must be through one of the alleyways you glimpse to the side.
> You front?
You don’t feel like alleyways today so you raise your hand for going in the front. The leader nods. “You’re with me then, we all meet in the middle of the store once we check all entrances are clear.” The other two men head off for the alley leading round back as you carefully approach the front door.

Since you are unarmed you pull the doors open and jump back to give your partner a line of sight but there is no sign of movement so you both slip inside.

The store was some old grocery and drug store combo, it has been mostly cleared out but it was done in a rush and there are still useable supplies on the shelves and floor if you sort through it. You and your partner begin to check the aisles more carefully when you hear the shot coming from the back of the store and you see the other two men stumbling in the back door, slamming it shut behind them.

The first thing you notice is that one is clutching his arm and his has a large gash out of it. “It was under some trash, it didn’t move when we poked the bags or anything but after we went by and were trying the door it suddenly lurched up and grabbed me; bit me before, before I knew, before.” He stops and winces in pain, dropping his gun.

Red sirens begin going off in your head. “His speech! He’s Going!” you practically shout.

Your partner swears and glances around, we have to move NOW! Grab what you can and start running, I’ll finish him off then follow with my bags once I know for sure he’s turning.
> You follow orders, grab tins and run
You and the other guard grab what food and bags you can and start running as fast as you can away from the store, about a minute later you hear a gun shot, you glance behind you, the store is out of sight already but you see shamblers coming out of a couple of the alleyways  headed that way. You pause, considering going back when your new partner grabs your arm. “No time, they are ahead too, Gorramit, it’s like it was a bloody trap!”

You see that he is right, a couple of shamblers are already on the road ahead, two of them you can run past easy but if more come, then there will be trouble and there are already more than a dozen you can see behind.

You keep running.

You finally come within sight of the stadium and just have time to notice what you thought was a light in a nearby window before starting to climb barricades to get back to safety. Seems like the shamblers were more intent on the loud noise than chasing you at least.

Once inside you let your partner do the talking, no-one blames either of you and you’re given the next couple of days off to recover before the next mission which goes smoothly.
> You life as a guard
The next few missions go a lot smoother and there are no casualties, your physical condition gives you advantages over some of the others and you become a fairly popular scavenging partner. You actually begin enjoying living there and even feel like you have begun to properly adapt to their rations and pass your weapon handling so can take a gun with you, though you still prefer the trusty bat for shamblers.

Life goes pretty well for another week or two and you even think that settling here might not be so bad after all even if that wasn’t close to your intent when you first walked in the doors.

Sadly things do not last that way for long.

It’s barely been a month since you arrived in the stadium ruins when the scavenging team fails to return. They decide to send a larger squad after them so find out what happened and ask for volunteers.
> You raise your hand
You’ve been a great scavenger so far so people are not surprised when you volunteer and your team of 8 men sets out, heavily armed and ready. Everyone walks in a grim silence on the way. Loosing people is always a possibility but it’s still rare, apart from the two lost on your first time out there hasn’t been an incident in 3 months so losing an entire team has shocked everyone again.

You walk quietly holding your gun at the ready, noisy but since everyone else will be firing it will be more effective than the bat you think.

Once close the leader raises his hand. “Teams of two, always keep at least one other team in sight and call out all strange sights or sounds instantly, got it?”

You all nod and split up as you enter the large store front, it used to be glass but with all the windows smashed you can walk right in wherever you want. You’ve gone with the other survivor from the first mission, seems that having everyone else die in your team makes a bond.

It’s only a few seconds before you hear the first call go up from one aisle to your left, the one to your right a few seconds later, glancing through the empty shelves you see the teams hunched over something, moving forward past some upturned trollies you also make a find a call it out. Seems like all members of the other team have been found. Well, what remains at least.

The rest of your team converges on the three groups that found something. “Looks like they got swarmed here, torn to pieces before they could put up a real fight, only a few shells on the floor.” One of the men says

Something clicks in your brain and you suddenly turn to your partner. “Remember the first mission; you said it was like a trap? We have to get out of here right now, we have to run!”

The other men hear and you can see it on their faces that they all agree, you all grab the fallen weapons and run to the front of the store but you find the street in either direction already full of infected, and not just shamblers, you’re pretty sure you see some fast ones there too, almost dancing on the spot with repressed energy, wanting to charge you, but they don’t.

From a window across the street you see an old man call down to you. “Greetings new survivors of the stadium!”

One of the men instantly reacts, “YOU! You’re the Harbinger! We let you in right before the attack happened!” He tries to take aim with his rifle but the man seems to move faster than he has any right to and vanishes from sight, you can still hear him though. “Indeed I have been called that many times before, although I won’t be by you again, sadly my pets here need a little food before I take out the rest of your little stronghold. I’d love to turn a few of you but feeding the current army comes first you know!”

The infected rush you, the men get off several shots but they are quickly overwhelmed by the fast ones and the shamblers close in.

You know there is no hope when you see them coming through the store too and take a running jump to catch the awning hanging high over the door, you easily make the high jump and are pulling yourself up to get away across the roof before you feel an impact in your back and lose your grip, falling to the pavement below.

“Oh dear, you are a spry one, normal men shouldn’t have made that jump so easily but no matter!” you hear the old guy laughing as you get torn to pieces.


The next few missions go a lot smoother and there are no casualties, your physical condition gives you advantages over some of the others and you become a fairly popular scavenging partner. You actually begin enjoying living there and even feel like you have begun to properly adapt to their rations and pass your weapon handling so can take a gun with you, though you still prefer the trusty bat for shamblers.

Life goes pretty well for another week or two and you even think that settling here might not be so bad after all even if that wasn’t close to your intent when you first walked in the doors.

Sadly things do not last that way for long.

It’s barely been a month since you arrived in the stadium ruins when the scavenging team fails to return. They decide to send a larger squad after them so find out what happened and ask for volunteers.
> You keep quiet, you know full well what happened and don't want to be next
You remember what happened on your first mission, going after them will be suicide and probably a trap.

Luckily 8 men volunteer quickly enough and no-one blames those who don’t so you get away with no shame from it, you head off to your normal duty for that day, you’re on balcony 6 for the next 4 hours or so. You’ll be the only one there since it isn’t really an important one, kind of to the side of the main entrance and not looking at anything of interest.

Its half way through your shift when you hear some muffled sounds coming from over the city and it seems another sentry heard it too, you report hearing it then head back up. Once you get off duty though and come back down it’s not to a pretty sight. It seems that they worked out that the noise was gun fire and the ‘rescue’ team was now also overdue.

You think back again to your first mission and what seemed like a trap, your starting to get a bad feeling about the city now. Seems like scavenging too close to the city center isn’t such a good plan anymore.

You have to choose whether to dump these guys and head out alone now or hold out until they are ready to make a larger push for the colony to the east, sure you have lost men recently but true to their word, they have recruited nearly a dozen in the last month. You had no idea there were so many survivors up in this area or you’d have come North a lot sooner.

You’re also pretty sure that the Capt. is going to order a push East soon too, even with the losses, their numbers are still good and they have the guns and equipment for a full military push through the open streets, the scouts have everything planed out route wise with backups for it things go wrong.
> You leave them, their tactics aren't working
You really can't work out why people keep using tactics right out of old movies when they never work. You have to get out of here before you get taken down with everyone else on their suicide mission.

You start your preparations, gathering spare food and supplies and get your bag ready to leave when your friend from the first mission approaches you about leaving with some others who share your opinion. You sign on immediately and get ready to sneak out.
> You sneaking out
You’ve been thinking the same for a while. If an even larger group of military couldn’t hold the infected at bay, then what will this small team do? Especially if the harbinger from before COULD control the infected, you’ll have to think about that more later, for now it’s time to get out.

“I’m in, betting a small team can move a lot quieter than a large group too. Let’s go.”

You grab you pack and bat, leaving the gun behind as you never liked using it anyway and head for a North-East balcony where you all climb down some piping and Begin heading East. There are 5 people in your little team including yourself. A few brought guns, but everyone needs something to make them feel safe you guess, even if all it does is draw more infected.

The plan gets laid out as you walk. Seems that you are heading East along a route further North of the route the jeep will be taking, getting up to a highway that should take you most of the way to the river. It was too clogged with cars for the main group for no problem for 5 guys on foot.

You all walk quietly for the next few hours before stopping to eat having covered a good distance. You pick a low rooftop that you think once belonged to a barber shop to rest. One of the men finally speaks up.

“We are a few hours clear and this roof is pretty safe, shall we break for the rest of the night and head out again at dawn?”

You all agree and settle down for the rest of the night on the rooftop. You spend the next few hours thinking about getting to the safe colony to the east and why you were originally heading there before getting so caught up with the stadium people before eventually falling asleep.
> You morning hunger
You wake with the dawn and find two of the others already up. “We couldn’t sleep so great being exposed out here.” One of them says to you.

As the last two get up, you realize just how hungry you are and remember that you didn’t eat anything last night. You dig in your bag for your meat strips but find nothing there, remembering that you finished them off on the third day in the stadium. You accept some rations from the other guys but it seems to do little to your hunger.  You think back to when you used to feel this hunger practically all the time, seems your days of living happily in the stadium and not feeling hungry are over for the time being.

You all check your surroundings but it’s all clear and you head off again about an hour after dawn.

“Won’t the others catchup to us at this rate?” one of the others asks out loud. It’s your friend that answers. “Nah, we are a few roads North of them and will be heading up to the highway by lunchtime, so even if they do move faster than us, they will pass right by us to the South and never see us. Hey if all goes well we will meet up with them in a few weeks at the colony and have a great laugh about this all!”

The mood seems to lighten a little after that and you all keep moving with some quiet chatter going on. You even join in some of the joking and in the light atmosphere begin to forget about feeling hungry again.

It’s a few hours later and you are getting close to the on ramps for the highway when you begin hearing the noises.

Its very faint but you call it out anyway. “Low rumbling to the South.” The others pause and listen for a time before one turns and says. “I hear it now, sounds like the Jeep, they will be passing us soon. Those are some ears you have mate!”

“Seems they are making great time if they are passing us already, they might actually do it at this rate!” one of the men jokes as you all start walking again, listening to the low rumble get louder, then start to get quieter as they pass you a few roads to the South.

Its only a few minutes later that you hear a crashing noise and the rumbling stop.

“Gorram Harbinger! They are being ambushed aren’t they, we should go help them!”
> You agree to run and help, they aren't too far away after all
You immediately agree. “Well we can’t just leave them there and even if it’s the harbinger, he won’t expect us. Your friend reluctantly agrees as do the others. You all set off at a run. There hasn’t been any other noise yet and you start to hear the Jeep again. “The jeeps just idling! They were probably just clearing a car off the road!” one of the guys says when you are only a couple of blocks away.

Almost on cue you hear the 50cal. Starting up and blocking out any other noise. Swearing out loud you round the corner a couple of blocks behind the stadium group and find a bus between you and them, as well as a horde of the infected.

One man with you drops to his knees. “It’s just like when the stadium fell. It’s the harbinger.”

The 50cal. Falls silent, looking through the buss’s windows you see the infected swarming towards the jeep. “It’s already over, let’s get out of here!” You drag the kneeling man to his feet but he breaks free, rushing towards the buss firing his rifle.

“We can still save them! It’s not too late!” He barely gets 20 feet before you see a couple of fast types sprinting from an alleyway, taking him down and beginning to feed on him.

“Everyone run!” You hear someone shout. You don’t even check who it was and start sprinting back in the direction you came as you see  3 more fast types headed your way. You never even notice your friend and one other falling behind and getting eaten. You only stop once you are several blocks away and turn to see the last member of your group some distance behind trying to keep up.

“Forgot how much faster I was” You think to yourself as you wait for him.

“Where are the other two?” You ask, thinking about your friend.

“Got, taken, down…” He stammers, out of breath. “None of us could keep up with you and the fast ones don’t tire like us. I only got away because they stopped to eat the other two.”

“AAHH Gorramit!” you say out loud, you know it was only the 3 fast types and if you had helped then you could have easily taken them down, it’s not as if a bite of two would inconvenience you much, you’ve had enough before to know they will have no more effect on you.

“Let’s just go before more come. We know what the plan was at least.”

You head North and quickly get to the highway without further signs of pursuit. The lighthearted atmosphere from before has vanished leaving you and the last remaining survivor from the stadium walking in silence and brooding. You can feel your hunger returning with a vengeance now that you have little else good to think about and eating a trail bar doesn’t help at all. Your mind keeps wandering to how anyone you try and get close to dies anyway.

You both walk until night when you find a van to climb into and shut the door behind you. “So they are all dead.” You mutter out loud as you both check for what food there is left, your hunger is killing you. Seems that between you, you have enough basic rations for a few days.

“Right, I REALLY need to eat, let’s have a proper meal then we can scavenge more as we go.” Your new partner seems too depressed to argue about anything so you divide the food into two big meals and 1 day’s rations. You both eat up quickly and he curls up into a corner of the van to sleep.

You spend the next few hours awake thinking about all those dead people and about talk of harbingers being able to control the infected. You hunger hasn’t gone down at all despite the meal.
> You late night munchies
It’s near midnight and the old hunger is eating at you and you come to a decision. “I tried, I tried for weeks. No-one can blame me now, since everyone around me dies, it may as well be to my plan like it used to be.”

The other survivor doesn’t even move as you take out your bat and kill him with a single blow.

Your hunger is finally sated and like returning to an old addiction, everything feels better than ever. You pack up what’s left of his remains to take with you as food for your journey and fall asleep happy in the fact that you have made you mind up at last. You will reach the colony to the East. And once there you will eat them one by one, you are a harbinger after all, it’s what you do.
> You morning in the blood stained van
The morning comes and you wake happy again, not the relaxed happiness of the stadium, a happiness with an edge. You have great things to do after all. You check that the other survivors remains are carefully wrapped up and in your packs, the last meat strips from that crazy you killed and ate had run out so you have to make sure you bring enough with you. You almost laugh out loud that the idiots in the stadium never thought you were a harbinger and the strips of mean were from a human.

But time to move on. You need to test out these ideas of controlling infected.

You walk slowly East on the highway, from memory this thing circles most of the city so it will be a much longer way round to the bridge but you still don’t want to be near the city centre. Mutants are still mutants whether you admit to yourself what you are or not.

After a few hours you see a shambler down below, slowly making its way down a road. You pause and concentrate for hours on it. Concentrating, trying to feel its mind, trying to order it to do something mentally but to no avail. It slowly keeps walking down the road and eventually you give up following it, starting to walk along the highway looking for a closer target to test your theories on.

You finally come across a car which had crashed into the van in front leaving the driver trapped. You thought it was dead at first but once you are close, it twitches a little and makes a weak movement with its arm.

“Seems you’ve been trapped here a really long time little shambler.” You say to it, looking carefully in the car you see from all the bones that there must have been at least one other passenger in the car which the shambler was eating to have sustained itself this long. Either way it was still trapped and near death. A perfect test subject.

You decide to use the van it crashed into for your bed and spent the next couple of hours concentrating on it. Still no luck, no reaction at all really. It seems the same as always, it wants to eat you and you have no effect.

You sigh as you settle down for the night in the back of the van.

You might have to give up on the stupid rumors, you’ve been a harbinger for years and never had an inkling of controlling infected with ‘mind powers’ sure it’s the apocalypse but its not some stupid movie. You’ve already seen the infected swarming towards noise and that jeep could be heard for miles, they just made too much noise and attracted everything in the area to them so when they stopped to push cars around, they got swarmed, they probably tried to use the bus to block the infected from getting to them and failed.
> You give it up. Who are you kidding that you have amazing mind powers that you simply never noticed before?
You head East, following the highway for several days and strangely find it mostly deserted, like someone had cleared it out some time before and only the occasional straggler came back.

The going is easy and the worst you are left to contend with are the occasional shambler amidst the parked and crashed cars. Its not long before you see the bridge ahead of you. There are a few shamblers visible on it but it looks clear enough for you to make a try at getting across, "Then its right onto the Eastern Colony!" you say to yourself.

You're a harbinger through and through and you're going to enjoy infiltrating the colony then eating everyone inside, one by one.

Unfortunately as you take your first step onto the bridge you feel a sudden pain hit your mind, like the worst migraine you ever had described to you. You collapse gripping your head but the pain vanishes just as suddenly, leaving a strange numb feeling in your mind.

A voice suddenly appears in your head "Too close to being red my friend, we can't have you coming here to try and destroy us now can we?" You feel a second wave of pain then nothing more


The morning comes and you wake happy again, not the relaxed happiness of the stadium, a happiness with an edge. You have great things to do after all. You check that the other survivors remains are carefully wrapped up and in your packs, the last meat strips from that crazy you killed and ate had run out so you have to make sure you bring enough with you. You almost laugh out loud that the idiots in the stadium never thought you were a harbinger and the strips of mean were from a human.

But time to move on. You need to test out these ideas of controlling infected.

You walk slowly East on the highway, from memory this thing circles most of the city so it will be a much longer way round to the bridge but you still don’t want to be near the city centre. Mutants are still mutants whether you admit to yourself what you are or not.

After a few hours you see a shambler down below, slowly making its way down a road. You pause and concentrate for hours on it. Concentrating, trying to feel its mind, trying to order it to do something mentally but to no avail. It slowly keeps walking down the road and eventually you give up following it, starting to walk along the highway looking for a closer target to test your theories on.

You finally come across a car which had crashed into the van in front leaving the driver trapped. You thought it was dead at first but once you are close, it twitches a little and makes a weak movement with its arm.

“Seems you’ve been trapped here a really long time little shambler.” You say to it, looking carefully in the car you see from all the bones that there must have been at least one other passenger in the car which the shambler was eating to have sustained itself this long. Either way it was still trapped and near death. A perfect test subject.

You decide to use the van it crashed into for your bed and spent the next couple of hours concentrating on it. Still no luck, no reaction at all really. It seems the same as always, it wants to eat you and you have no effect.

You sigh as you settle down for the night in the back of the van.

You might have to give up on the stupid rumors, you’ve been a harbinger for years and never had an inkling of controlling infected with ‘mind powers’ sure it’s the apocalypse but its not some stupid movie. You’ve already seen the infected swarming towards noise and that jeep could be heard for miles, they just made too much noise and attracted everything in the area to them so when they stopped to push cars around, they got swarmed, they probably tried to use the bus to block the infected from getting to them and failed.
> You can't give up yet, it's not as if you have anything else to do is it?
You really don't have anything to loose by continuing testing so you decide to spend the day where you are studying the trapped shambler, even if you don't have mind powers, you might still learn something as it's not every day you get to study one without it actively trying to eat you.

You spend your time concentrating on it, staring at it and even try rubbing your temples and waving your hand at it like in the old movies but to no avail. You are starting to get a headache too so decide to call it a day. You sleep a few hours hungry and frustrated before waking well before dawn.

Your eyesight is pretty good and the moon is out so you try testing things on the shambler again with the same lack of luck as the evening before. Finally fed up you pick up a piece of metal and throw it at the trapped shambler. You watch as it sticks into the decaying flesh of its chest and fell a slight twinge in your own.

touching your chest quickly you realize that you felt a twinge right where your projectile had stabbed into the shambler. "I call that progress!"

You begin concentrating on how your felt the twinge and by the evening you think you are feeling something. The headache from the night before is back with a vengeance though and you realize that you now have a small nosebleed. "Guess its not good to stare at the same think for 12 hours straight" You think to yourself as you head to bed early for once.
> The morning after the tests.
You wake up and quickly notice three things; Your headache is gone, you can feel something strange just outside the van and judging by the light creeping in, its well into morning. "Must have been the headache, I never sleep more than a few hours" you think as you snack on some meat strips and peek outside.

You definitely can sense something and it is exactly where the shambler sits trapped. a weird kind of haze shares it's position "So I can sense then, that is definitely a start, I'll have to keep this one alive for testing on"

You toss the trapped shambler a meat strip which it devours quickly while you begin concentrating on the haze, you find as the morning passes that the haze resolves into a small ball and realize that it must represent the shamblers mind. You smile to yourself as you settle into trying to affect it.

Again by the evening the headache and nosebleeds are back "These must be to do with my powers, streaching them after so long of un-use much be causing it" you think as you take a snack break.

> You further tests
The next few days pass in much the same way, you practice trying to control the shambler until you get a headache and nosebleed, then wait and rest until it passes. Sleep seems to help the most and you often wake up having progressed by a large leap from the day before.

By the end of your practicing you can make the shambler react to your commands and you are pretty sure you can sense what is happening to it too, like where it is injured. You need to test further and see if you can control others as well or if you are limited to having to learn each new infected like you did with this one.

Once you are pretty sure you could make it move the way you wanted if it wasn't completely trapped in place, you decide that it is time to move on and further your training with more testing.

It's a few hours after setting out that you see something below you and realize that a shambler must be on the road below the highway. You reach out for it and feel its mind there like you did with the trapped one but you immediately feel your nosebleed coming on again and stop pushing it. It seems that you will need to take things slowly

That night you find a rest stop and actually manage to camp inside a building. Your hunger is back but the last remains of the survivor you killed keep you sated for now "going to have to find some more food soon" you think to yourself.
> You heading East with your new powers, get to the colony soon
You keep heading East and don't find much food on the way but your powers do increase. You manage to control a fast type that comes into range, and since you were hungry, it provides some food too. Not nearly as good as human but definitely better than shambler flesh at least.

You learn to differentiate the minds of shamblers and fast types, even a mutant to the South falls temporarily under your control as your range increases. Your tests let you control several infected at once and direct them as you please. "They will have no idea what hit them when I reach the Eastern colony" You think to yourself. Your physical abilities have also improved. You were already faster and stronger than any normal human but that has increases along with your mental abilities, you know there isn't a normal human alive who could face you in a fight and you can rip a car's door clean off its hinges with only a little effort.

It's not long after that you finally reach the bridge across the river. there are infected on it but this wont stop you now as you direct them over the sides of the bridge to fall into the deep flowing water below. after a few moment you realize that either the fall or the drowning has actually killed most of them but shrug it off as another test, they are just prey after all.

Then the pain begins. A sudden sharp stabbing right into your mind forces you to your knees. You try to fight it off and feel it diminishing, like you are holding a barrier up against it, protecting your mind with your powers, but you feel jsut how much stronger the other force is and your defense crumbles.

"Sorry about this, I really am, but you are far too close to being red to get in here alive."

You try and respond but find that everything feels fuzzy, you are sure the voice in your head is female though

"Oh yes, might have damaged a few things there, attacking really isn't my strong suit so I might have used too much strength, well either way it doesn't matter now. Bye"

You feel a slight pain then everything fades out to black


The next few days pass in much the same way, you practice trying to control the shambler until you get a headache and nosebleed, then wait and rest until it passes. Sleep seems to help the most and you often wake up having progressed by a large leap from the day before.

By the end of your practicing you can make the shambler react to your commands and you are pretty sure you can sense what is happening to it too, like where it is injured. You need to test further and see if you can control others as well or if you are limited to having to learn each new infected like you did with this one.

Once you are pretty sure you could make it move the way you wanted if it wasn't completely trapped in place, you decide that it is time to move on and further your training with more testing.

It's a few hours after setting out that you see something below you and realize that a shambler must be on the road below the highway. You reach out for it and feel its mind there like you did with the trapped one but you immediately feel your nosebleed coming on again and stop pushing it. It seems that you will need to take things slowly

That night you find a rest stop and actually manage to camp inside a building. Your hunger is back but the last remains of the survivor you killed keep you sated for now "going to have to find some more food soon" you think to yourself.
> You heading North to train before you make for the Colony
You need time and safety to train your new talents, wandering recklessly East while still developing is probably too dangerous as you don’t know what is lurking between you and the colony. Heading South would just take you right into the city center and that would be a death wish without better abilities so North is your final option.

You know there used to be small communities in the outlying areas, hamlets and villages that served the farming communities, retirement homes and even some affluent areas for those who no longer wanted to live in the big city. If you look around enough you are sure you will find a nice enough building to make a temporary base, food might be scarce but you can always subside on the infected for a few weeks.

You walk until the next off-ramp leading to a North-bound road and wander down. Looking around you see most of the buildings reduced to rubble, the military must have hit this area harder than others during the defense. “Maybe this was one of the areas they tried to make a stand and bombed the hordes of infected that attacked them” You think to yourself as you walk, but it is unlikely that you’ll ever find out for sure.

 There are not too many infected in this direction but you know if you find a small community that you should find some there to practice on, they never wander too far from where they turned after-all.

By night-time you have left the outskirts of the city behind and begin to see open areas of land a fields, some overgrown with crops of varying types, untended for years, the old clearly defined lines haven given away to a mish-mash of crops invading others fields while weeds and thorns try to choke them all out.

By nightfall you are looking for a likely place to rest and see a few options, in the distance you can make out what looks like a small grain silo, it would take a couple of hours to reach but they usually are made of metal, have small ladders right up to the top where you’d be nice and safe from everything, There is also an old broken down farmhouse nearby and a Barn on the same land. The House was clearly ransacked long ago, the doors are missing, windows smashed and everything looted out of it. The barn seems in better shape, the doors wide open but still intact at least.
> You head onto the Grain Silo, solid metal construction is more trustworthy
You head resolutely toward the grain silo, if you were going to find a safe resting spot it would be there. You can see scattered houses in the distance but they will most likely be like the one you passed, ransacked and useless. THe grain silo however is a huge solid metal cylinder with a walkway spiraling up the outside which leads to the metal hatch on top to get inside. Even if the grain levels are too low inside it, there is often a small internal platform or walkway below the hatch you could rest on for the night.

As you get closer the dusk ends and the night fully sets in, you count your blessings that you have good night vision as avoiding an infected attack now would be very difficult. You stomach keeps rumbling on you, reminding you of how long it has been since you ate. The old hunger has kept getting stronger recently and you know you will need to eat something very soon.

And luckily you see prey.

A woman is running out of the fields, right towards the same silo as you! You are normally a lot more cautious but the old hunger has finally overwhelmed your better judgment. You are a harbinger and you need to feed. You begin to sprint towards the woman, planning on cutting her off and tackling her. It has been too long since you had human flesh and you are practically salivating over the remembered taste.

You realize almost too late that you are not the only thing chasing the woman. She screams out for help while she runs and you think you hear a response from up on the tower but you do not have time to think about it. Right behind the woman are two large mutant animals, they look like farm cats fed steroids having morphed into things larger than cougars and they are about to catch the woman seconds before you do.

The woman is not a threat and despite your hunger you know you must deal with these mutants first or they will tear you apart too. The woman screams again as she finally notices you charging her way, bat raised ready to strike but as she stumbles you step past her and meet the front mutant cat with the full force of your swing sending it crashing to the ground, injured but still moving. You glance at the woman and see something akin to surprise before it returns to fear and she scrambles away toward the silo where you now see three men heading your way.

You turn back as the second mutant attacks you. You know you can't afford to have it jumping around all the time so when it snaps you offer it your arm and it latches on. Once there you start smashing it's head in with your bat. only stopping when it slumps off you to the ground with half of its skull gone.

You are about to turn back to the humans when the first mutant leaps at you again, you hadn't finished it off with that first blow and it knocks you clean off your feet. You realize that it is badly injured and probably could have killed it had the back of your head not landed neatly on a rock, knocking you out cold.
> A painful wakening
You slowly wake up and immediately feel the pain at the back of your head "Great I came to eat a human and wound up fighting mutants off for her instead" You think as you try and sit up. You realize something is wrong almost the moment you do. You are not outside anymore.

You carefully feel your head while you look around. There is a bad gash but it should heal up in a few days so long as you eat. Your arm is in worse shape with several deep tears in the flesh "can't be helped, taking on two mutants is never a good plan" You think while trying to work out where you are.

Finally you realize you are inside the grain silo you were trying to reach. The humans you saw must have dumped you down here once they scared off the other mutant. "Well thats some gratitude isn't it. I did save her life afterall." You are about to add a comment about how you planned to eat her not save her but you are fortunately cut off by a female voice from above "I know you did and I am sorry but you are bitten, we cannot risk it. I am glad you woke up though. please keep quiet now, they patrol this area at night."

You think about responding but decide against it "They think I am a normal human who did somthing heroic and have put me down here to quarantine me while keeping me safe. this works to my advantage." You carefully lie down again and get some more sleep now that you know you have safety at least until morning.
> You morning in the silo
You wake at what you assume is the early morning hearing voices from above. They are whispering meaning you cannot hear most of what is said but one is definitely a woman and the other a man, you think they are arguing about you. The woman seems pretty adamant and you assume it is her defending you since she thinks you acted to save her.

You can't make out any more details anyway so you loudly roll over and let out a yawn. The whispering immediately stops and the man calls down "If you are still human prove it now!" You think for a second before replying "You prove that you are human first then I will, I just saved that womans life while you chucked me down here!" You hear the woman cutting in "If he speaks, he is still human Chris and you know it." You hear silence again before a more resigned male voice calls down.

"Ok, so you haven't turned yet but take a look at your arm. They bit you good and we can't risk having you loose until we know you wont turn" You nod to yourself, you proved you were human and that you were not scared of time, time to play nice for a bit "Ok I understand that, it's smart to quarantine those who are bitten but I haven't turned and it's not exactly comfortable down here, I can't even see what I am lying on!"

You hear a creak from above and light floods down into the silo, the metal walls reflecting it to ensure everywhere is lit. You cover your eyes while they get used to the light then look around. You are about 12 feet below the small walkway below the hatch where you can see the two humans sitting. You are currently sitting on top of what appears to be some old fencing thrown down here so you wouldn't sink into the grain below it. You also notice the shambler only a few feet away from you.

You lurch away from it and slip off the fencing boards, finding yourself sinking into the grain slowly when you hear the shout from above "Hold on there, it's trapped and not a thread, get back on the boards before you sink too deep!" You scramble back up again and sit down holding your arm, open wounds are not meant for clambering about, you have no idea if you would actually sink into the grain or if that was just some old myth but you are also not willing to test it out yourself.

You look closer at the shambler and realize that it is indeed trapped. It is up to its shoulders in the grain with a piece of wooden plank sticking into its side, ensuring it cannot move at all. "So mind if I ask what it is doing in here with me then?" You call up and it's the woman that answers "He was one of us, a survivor but he got bitten so we lowered him in there incase he turned. he must have realized he was going because in the night we heard him jump off into the grain and dig himself in before he lost control. It took him over a day to turn in the end." You nod along.

You try to catch and eat a woman and end up trapped in a grain silo with a shambler for company "Just great" You think.

"So how long am I spending down here with no food or water then?" You call up to them. You reply is in the form of a small bag being tossed down to you which you catch deftly 1 handed. "That has some water and some rations, enough to last you three days. That's how long you'll have to stay here for." Then you see the man climb out the hatch. The woman goes to follow then calls down "I'm sorry but we must be sure." Then follows the man out. They at least leave the hatch propped open so you get a little light in.
> You quarantine in the silo
You are trapped and now along with the shambler in the silo. You could probably escape if you really tried. there are two sections of fence down here, if you stood on one and wedged the other up against the wall you are pretty certain you could make the jump off it and up onto the small walkway. It would be fairley easy to ambush those humans when they returned too.
> You go for it, they trapped you in here and eating humans is what you do after all
You quickly decide that you want out of here so you grab the other piece of fencing and testing it find that it is still good and solid. You are about to wedge it against the wall of the silo when you think about how hungry you are. You place it down and walk over it towards the trapped shambler. You quickly pull the plank out of its side and kill it with it before feeding on it briefly to sate your desire.

You then go back to the original plan and using the wedged fencing you make it up to the walkway with a huge leap. You automatically grab onto the bottom lip to pull yourself up but remember too late about your arm. You feel the slight healing that had happened come undone and blood starts flowing down your arm as you pull yourself up.

You collapse onto the walkway in pain "Now they are really going to pay" you think to yourself, you haven't felt this much pain in years. You check around and find some bags of food, mostly fruit and veg in one corner and assume they are here scavenging. You quickly tear a strip off one of the bags to bind up your wound then move to the corner of the walkway, trying to ensure you will be out of sight when they first come in, and you do not have long to wait.

You watch as the hatch opens and lets more light flood in while you edge as far back into the corner as possible. It is unnecessary though and the woman climbs right in without checking first, seemingly completely sure that you were trapped and not a threat. You watch her move right over to some bags and start unloading some more fruit while the man climbs in behind.

You spring your trap just as he turns his back to you, leaping clean onto his back and forcing him flat instantly. it is a simple task then for you to snap his neck and sit up to look at the woman who lets out a belated scream. You laugh aloud before replying "Sorry my dear but I was actually intending to eat you when those mutants got in the way, don't worry though, I will keep you alive down in the silo until I am finished eating this fo..." You are cut off as you hear the boom and feel the impact in your back.

You are thrown to the ground and roll over in time to see two more men outside the hatch with guns pointed your way "There were three of them when they came to help there woman weren't there, I shouldn't have forgotten that" You think as the second man fires and it goes dark.


You are trapped and now along with the shambler in the silo. You could probably escape if you really tried. there are two sections of fence down here, if you stood on one and wedged the other up against the wall you are pretty certain you could make the jump off it and up onto the small walkway. It would be fairley easy to ambush those humans when they returned too.
> You wait out the quarantine, a few days wont hurt and you have things to test on the shambler
Three days down here wont hurt you and will give your arm time to start healing. You will also be just as talkative and lucid as before so they will obviously think you are fine and let you back up at the end, you just need to bind your arm so the wound is not so obviously healing too quickly. You tear a strip off the bag they threw down as a temporary solution and bind the wound up "Not visible now at least" You think as you settle in for the long haul.

Since you are here with a completely trapped shambler you have the perfect test subject to work on the persistent rumors of Harbingers abilities. You take the time to think through them all carefully since you only have three days and want to use them to the fullest. "They are stronger and faster than humans, check, cos I am." You think to yourself "Two, they heal faster, also check. Three they can control hordes of infected, unknown. Four, they don't bleed, false but very useful." You pause for a moment to try and recall any other rumor but you draw a blank for now "Controlling the infected it is then" You think as you lie back down and begin staring hard at the shambler.

â€‹You only last a few moments before your head begins to throb at you and you decide that maybe giving the head wound a few more hours to heal before concentrating too hard might be a good plan so simply lie back and let your mind wander over past encounters with infected and over the one close to you now, how you might control its mind.

You drift off to sleep still thinking about the shambler and how to control it and do not wake up for a few hours.
> You sudden light in the face
You are woken by a light flashing on your face and you sit up quickly to look around. You hadn't planned to fall asleep, just to rest for a few moments. You immediately hear a voice from above "He's still moving at least" You look up and see the man has a torch in his hand, no longer pointed in your face though "You still talking? You've slept an awful lot." He calls down to you.

You are about to answer back sarcastically but remember you are supposed to be nice at the moment "Yeh, the head wound was hurting so I decided to rest a bit more, it's not really like I have that many options down here." The man nods in response then heads back out. You notice the bags near the railing look a lot bigger though so they must have brought something back when they came in.

You lie back down to rest but realize you can feel somthing near you, like when someone is in the room and you can kind of feel it in the hairs on the back of your neck. You turn towards the source of the feeling and it is clearly the trapped shambler. You can actually sense it already, either your head wound or the sleep helped you. You immediately decide that giving yourself another head wound is out of the question so you decide that it must have been the sleeping while thinking about the shambler that did it.

You spend the rest of the day concentrating on the strange feeling and the shambler and slowly resolving it into something you can control a little better. By the end of the day you can sense the mind of the shambler as a small compressed haze which represents it's mind. Your concentration is occasional interrupted by the man and woman coming and going, dropping off what looks like fruit and veg into the large sacks "So this is their scavenging expedition then, they come to the farms to get food for where-ever their base is." The woman always takes a few moments to try and apologize for your treatment but each time you assure them that it is completely understandable and the only smart option and that finally seems to calm her about it and by even she simply trades pleasantries with you.

You go to sleep once more thinking about the shambler and affecting the haze which is its mind.
> The difference between the shambler and your guards
You wake just after dawn and find a lot of dried blood on your lip "Dam nosebleeds"  you think as you wipe it off, wouldn't be good for the humans to see you bleeding like this, they might jump to conclusions and last night you saw the other two men again standing outside, and they were carrying rifles.

You turn to begin your concentration on the shambler like before but find you don't need to. You can sense it near you easily. you concentrate anyway and find you can sense thing from its mind, or what is left of it. It feels like the dying remains of a mind, weak and rotting away slowly. You can tell where it is injured though and with a slight push you make it lift its arm up in the air. You are about to rejoice when you feel wetness on your face and realize you have a massive nosebleed again. You quickly wipe it away again and wait for the bleeding to stop "guess the side effects are going to just keep being annoying for a while, going to have to be careful" you also feel the beginnings of a headache but as soon as you stopped concentrating it lessened slightly again.

You lie back to take a break and realize another difference. You can sense a haze above you too, very different than the one from the shambler, warmer, full of energy and life "So thats the mind of a normal human then, I wonder what mine appears like?" You think as you try and concentrate on the human minds.

You make a little progress and have reduced the haze to a small area around the sleeping humans when they begin to stir and the headache gets too strong. You take a complete break and rest while they do their short morning routine. The woman pauses to lean over and look down at you, realizing you are away and looking back she calls down "You'll be out soon, sorry again about this but as you said, we have to be safe!" You grin and reply "It really isn't a problem, I just get to rest down here all day while you guys go scavenging for food, you have the more dangerous job if there are more of those mutants out there."

The man cuts in a little suspicious "How do you know we are scavenging for food here?" You just laugh as you see the woman rolling her eyes at him. He looks a little confused before she fills him in "We come in here 3 or 4 times a day and dump food into the sacs like 6 feet from his head, I would be more worried if he didn't know what we were doing." The man pauses then realizes his mistake "Right, then I'll be outside when you are ready" is all he says as he heads out the door clearly embarrassed.

"The woman turns back to you "Sorry for that, he can be a little paranoid but his heart is in the right place. My name is Cara by the way" She gives you a big smile. "It's lovely to meet you Cara" you reply "And don't worry, the paranoid ones usually live longer these days."

She smiles again as she heads out "Perfect, she trusts me already, I'll be out soon" You think as you settle down to your tests. You make the shambler do a few tricks and after throwing a couple of pieces of wood at it, you are confident you can sense what is happening to it. You do however get a wicked headache again and decide that you will need to pace yourself a little more. The headaches seem to accompany progress but they also might be dangerous as shown by the nosebleeds.

You take the evening off just to recover more and spend more time chatting with the woman when she returns, trying to resolve the haze around her more, you finally fall asleep still concentrating on the human haze.
> You morning resolutions
The morning comes with more progress, things with the shambler seems the same, you can make it do anything you want already, but above you the haze has defined more. You can tell the difference between Cara's mind and the man's. You had spent time the night before gathering details and had given your own name and some details of your life before the infection spread but you gave away little of your recent life, just glossed over it as a hard life scavenging along. You did tell them about loosing some comrades recently to garner a little sympathy and from their looks they both knew what it was like to loose friends.

Their minds also resolved to be clearer and softer. Utterly different from the shamblers beside you, almost the opposite, exuding life and clearly full of thought and emotion but you find you cannot affect them in any similar way or gather feelings from them, just sense that they have them. The energy they seem to exude does seem to make your hunger worse though, just knowing how much you would gain from eating them.

You exchange a few more pleasantries as they head out and Cara throws you down a ripe apple for a snack, you thank her as you bite into it and find that it surprisingly helps with your hunger a little. Not a lot, but enough to take the slightest edge off, you are used to human food tasting terrible and barely sustaining you so it is a very welcome surprise.

You relax and eat some of the other rations while thinking of the conversation the night before and what you had learned. They actually live in an old walled community a couple of days walking North of here. The large walls and steel gate kept infected out and guns held off the looters until they fell to the infected so they survived well. They are one of several scavenging teams that head out to gather food and supplies for the community. They give few other details but you guess they are small of number, maybe 30 in all but they seem to do well enough there.

You finally decide that it is time to do more tests but you have exhausted what you want to try on the shambler so you put your mind to trying to sense other things around you. This takes most of the day, a nose bleed and several headaches but by evening you can sense some minds at the periphery of where your senses reach. You remember an old barn in that direction so assume that is where the infected you sense must be, that means you have several hundred feet of sensing ability.

You relax as you feel the minds of the humans returning and make sure you don't have any blood left below your nose. THe evening passes like before with chatting and telling stories, it's been a while since you enjoyed yourself like this.
> You decision time
You wake in the morning and realize that once more you slept through the night instead of the normal few hours "Must be the mental training" You think as you test your senses to see what changed while you slept. Sure enough you can feel the infected in the barn more clearly now and with less effort "Two shamblers, one nearly dead and the other near it also in bad shape. Must be trapped in the basement of somthing"  you think to yourself as the humans above you wake up.

Once awake Cara immediately leans down over the bar "Time to wake up! Let's get you out of there!" The man groggily stands beside her, "Are you sure about this?" but she just gives him a disparaging look until he goes to fetch a rope and lowers it down to you, tying one end off on the railing.

You catch it as it comes down and are about to start climbing up when you realize that your arm will be healed a lot further than a normal humans and your makeshift bandage is almost certainly going to be replaced soon, you're going to have to bluff.

You climb up, pretending to be careful of the wounded arm but you secretly put extra strain on it and can feel the wounds tearing open again slightly "Perfect" You think as you climb ove the railing and immediately find yourself receiving a huge hug from Cara. You are taken aback for a moment by the very unusual occurrence and have no time to act before she hops away again "That was for saving my life, I've owed you it!" The she quickly hops out of the hatch, you can see the two men holding rifles greet her as she passes. The man turns to you "Wait here for a bit, we have to finish a quick scavenge then we will all return to discuss what to do with you."

You judge it best not to decide anything while the two men with guns have a clear shot at you and you have you climb through a hatch to get to them so you simply nod and take a seat to await their return.

This gives you plenty of time to think things through. It has not been long but you are already progressing amazingly with your abilities. You are certain you can control infected easily and can sense them coming a long way off and you can sense the presence of humans or 'normals' at an equal distance even if you can't affect them.

Cara trust you and you actually enjoy her company, the man doesn't fully trust you but isn't aggressive either. The two outside seem to be the guards for the scavengers, you have yet to speak to them but you can sense them always nearby the scavengers.

You could of course strike now, Cara trusting you and getting close to you can be used to your advantage, you just need to ge them off guard once when they return and you can take the guards out leaving Cara and Chris defenseless. It would be a little risky but you are certain you could pull it off. On the other hand you really are enjoying chatting with Cara in the evenings and the food they gave you is actually sitting well and taking the edge off your hunger, why not stay with them a bit, at least until you are back to their little colony, you can decide what to do when you are there after all.
> You ambush them, you may like her company but you gain more from eating them
You need to be prepared if you are going to kill them all. Cara you can use since she seems to trust you, Chris is a fool and wont be trouble. It is just the guards outside that you need to care about, you need a good opportunity to get to them before they can react.

You spend the next couple of hours resting and preparing. You try some fruit from one of the bags but it tastes bad and sits horribly in your stomach as your hunger grows worse, you'll have to eat them soon. Finally you sense their approach and put on your best happy and innocent face to greet them. You think about putting out some food for them but you aren't sure how they would react to you going through their stores so you just wait instead.

Cara enters first and gives you a big smile which you return with an equally big smile and nod, and you even greet Chris which somewhat surprises him but he seems happy about it. "lets get started then" You think to yourself as they sit down and Cara says that it is time for you to discuss your future with them.

"Shouldn't we all be present for this?" You ask, indicating the two men standing outside with your head, "I haven't even met them yet."

there is a pause and Chris replies "It's our rules, the guards stay on duty all the time and do shifts through the night time, it's the only way we have kept safe so far."
> You suggest you all go outside then and discuss it there. You can get close to them that way and attack now!
"Well why don't we all go out for our chat them!" You suggest "We could sit up on the silo behind them so they could be a part of the discussion while staying on duty."

The two look at each other but you see Cara wavering in your favor and push it a little "It's not as if it will be any more dangerous and I haven't exactly seen the sun in a few days" You say and immediately see the guilt working. Cara agrees and you all head outside. The guards are not so easily won over though. As you exit they spread apart. They are still close enough either side to hear what is happening and take part but they are no longer close enough to attack at the same time. You have to time your attack perfectly. You make a show of offering Cara your hand to help her out and onto the silo roof then with a flourish do the same for Chris who gives you a wry laugh, one of the guards even smirks about it, but only for a moment as you suddenly lunge at him and tackle him down.

You are faster and stronger than any human so it is only a couple of seconds before his neck is snapped and you are back to your feet, spinning to charge the other guard. Sadly it seems they did not survive this long without skills and the second guard is already pointing his gun at you.

You just have time to take in the horror and tears in Cara's eyes and the immediate revulsion in Chris and the guards before you hear the boom and feel the impact on your chest. You stumble back but hear the click click of a bolt action, you look up in time to take the second shot to the chest and tumble off the silo railing. You are almost grateful that you die before you hit the ground.