You figure you’ll give it some time; you’re not in a hurry to go anywhere.

A week later and you wake up to a little mutant getting ready to push you to see if you’re awake, you immediately wake before he can do anything, slam him to the ground and put your knife to his throat.

“Hey! Stop! I’m on your side!” he gasps.
“Oh? What the hell are you doing here? Did the Captain finally decide to send me some help again?”
“The Captain’s dead!”
“He’s fuckin’ dead?”
“Yeah! He got assassinated by some big ass motherfucker! Anyway that’s why I was sent to get you! You’re next in line to take charge.”
“Wow. I would’ve thought someone would’ve just taken power themselves and left me to rot out here.”
“Well, I think a couple of people had that idea…but then they realized the job wasn’t worth it. The Shadow Horde has been taking the offensive ever since Captain Salazar insisted on pursuing them in their sewers. We need a leader to get us out of this mess and you’re the only one we have!”

See you knew no good was going to come of this.

“Alright, let’s see how much shit we’re in…”

You make your way back to Zeropolis and the Dust District is showing signs of battle, which is difficult to do since the place was a wreck to begin with. Dead bodies are being moved out of the street and the people look hopeful that you can somehow get them out of this mess.

First thing you do is order a complete pull out of the sewers and reinforce your defenses in the Dust District. There’s no point in pursuing an enemy that’s lived in the damn sewers for years and knows them like the backs of their hands. Right now you need to regroup after the losses Salazar has incurred due to his recklessness.

Second thing you do is order no more attacks on Combine towns, you can’t afford the man power and you didn’t like allying with the Cybernetic Evolution anyway. However, another shipment of weapons was already on its way when you enact this order. The cyborgs who arrive wonder why they haven’t heard any reports of mutants attacking the Combine. Seeing that this alliance is over anyway. You immediately have the cyborgs killed (Which is easier than you thought it would be) and keep the weapons to help your own struggle.

A couple more cyborgs arrive a month later probably to investigate what happened to their fellows, and you have them killed as well. Your hope is that the CE will think they’re losing them to Combine ambushes and will eventually just forget about you. And apparently they do because no more cyborgs are sent. You just hope the CE doesn’t win against The Combine.

Eventually you manage to restore relative safety to the Dust District, its not safe like it once was though, but at least it isn’t on the brink of disaster due to Salazar’s mad plan. Being in charge isn’t exactly a fun job, and its obvious why to as why nobody wanted to do it. Still the people see you as a savior of sorts and generally like you as a leader.

The warehouse that you live in, has been converted into the new head quarters, though you still live in the secret underground part that only you have access to…well at least you thought you did.

One night you wake up in your room to a very pale woman by your bed. Obviously she’s a mutant, but she’s somehow managed to avoid the ugliness and scaring that goes along with it, though she does have part of her face covered. She holds a pistol, but seems to be inspecting the place more than paying any attention to you.

“Boy this was so long ago and another life time…please don’t go for your gun, I’m here to talk…my, you are a pretty one. Almost human looking…almost.” she says finally paying attention to you.
“How the hell did you get past the guards?” you answer calculating how quickly you might be able to reach her before she can get off a shot.
“This war between our respective groups has taken a toll on both of us for quite sometime…I would ask that we finally have peace.” She says ignoring your question.

You gather she’s from the Shadow Horde, though you’ve never seen one like her. She’s not brimming with muscles or trying to rip your head off for one thing. (And somehow she actually smells nice and unsewer like!) She is exuding a weird aura though, like you have a great desire to follow whatever she says. It’s difficult to shake off these effects, but you try to keep a level head.

“Peace? You’re ones always coming out at night to eat people! We were just trying to defend ourselves!”
“…yes I have come to understand that now…and I appreciate your desire to exist. You have held out against us for years and accomplished much within that time. However I would say that your most recent attack on us was most definitely equally as brutal. You came into our sewers…our home and murdered innocent women and children, decreasing the ranks of our future warriors and birth givers. You came in using weapons of unparalleled power and destruction, unleashing blinding rays of light, incinerating at a touch.”
“Yeah, well like I said, YOU started it…however that recent attack wasn’t my idea. I thought we shouldn’t spread ourselves out so thin.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that, your Captain Salazar is dead and you have taken his place, which is why I feel I can talk to you about coming to you about putting an end to this conflict once and for all. I know of your deeds and you seem to be a lot more rational and reasonable than your predecessor. Anyway, I’ve come to the conclusion that this conflict is only going to harm us in the long run. We have to think about the future. The future of mutant kind relies on us no longer fighting each other. I thought survival of the fittest was enough when I first embraced my evolution, I believed that only the strong should be allowed to rule…but now I see that isn’t enough if we wish to thrive, we have to unite.”
“What exactly are you getting at?”
“Oh come on, you know that we’re the next stage of evolution. Humanity is the past, we’re the future.”
“Hmmm, I think I know some cyborgs that feel the same way.”
“Ah yes your cybernetic allies who you temporarily allied with, only to ruthlessly back stab later. Obviously they aren’t the future if they needed your help to defeat some humans. Listen to me, this City just isn’t divided between the Zeropolis Guard and the Shadow Horde you know…there are other factions. You just never come on conflict with them because you’re sectioned off in one corner of the City constantly fighting us and never able to spread out effectively. All these factions fight each other and that’s not counting the Ferals. I’m proposing that we could take the first steps in truly uniting Zeropolis. We could first approach in friendship, and if that regrettably failed, we could take by force. Who could stop us? The Shadow Horde has a higher birth rate and the numbers, while the Zeropolis Guard has the resources. You’d attack on the surface and we could attack from below. We could rebuild the world in our image.”

This rant is followed by her putting down her pistol, climbing on to your bed and seductively crawling closer to you, while taking off her strange protective mask revealing that the rest of her face isn't all scarred or mutated either. You feel really compelled to give in to her, and it’s not just the fact that it’s been awhile since you’ve been with a “human looking” chick. It’s whatever aura she’s exuding. It must be some sort of weird mutant ability she developed, but even though you’re aware of it, that doesn’t make it any less likely for you to want to resist. She’s making a point you haven’t considered before…you’re in a position of power, why not use it effectively?

Her face is an inch away from yours and the only thing you can sputter is…

“What’s your name?”
“I’m known as the Queen by the Horde, but you can call me Lisa.” She replies before kissing you passionately.
> You resist
As lovely of a creature she is, she’s been the one leading your current enemy for years. She’s most likely trying to lull you into a false sense of security to kill you; you won’t allow yourself to fall for it.

As Lisa kisses and grinds into you, you muster all your strength and grab her to roll her over so that you’re on top and firmly in control.

“Ohhh…okay…if that’s the way you want to do this, I don’t mind.” Lisa says and for a brief moment you think she might’ve been telling the truth about the alliance, however you go through with your plan.

“Sorry baby, but I could never trust you. Maybe next life.” You reply and snap her neck with one quick twist.

After the deed is done you sit by the bed for quite some time by her lifeless body. You really wish you hadn’t felt the need to do that, but given the fact that you’ve been the perpetrator of as well as a victim of betrayal in the past you felt you had no choice. Still, you always wonder what if…

Five years pass…

Ten years have passed since you decided that going to the City would be a great place to find supplies…

After the death of Lisa, the Shadow Horde became disorganized and eventually began to fight amongst themselves. They became much less of a direct threat, and as head of the Zeropolis Legion (As you renamed it) you were able to make the Dust District relatively safe once again. The idea of taking over the entire City was never something you want to pursue, so you just concentrated on building up the Dust District, however events conspire against you from living out a relatively conflict free life.

Recently over the last few years, a cult of mutants called the Glow Children, have taken over a great portion of Zeropolis through their weird faith. They follow a leader calling themselves the Savior. In your experience, groups with any type of religious faith behind them are never willing to negotiate and they aren’t an exception. They are utterly fanatical and devoted to their cause. They turn out to be worse than the Shadow Horde (In fact they also engage in attacks from the sewers as well, causing you to believe that ex-Shadow Horde members fill their ranks.) They’ve made their headquarters (or Cathedral as it were) at the old hospital.

They attack the Dust District relentlessly, but the most disturbing thing you notice is how some of them carry high tech weaponry similar to the kind that you used to fight the Shadow Horde. Later you see some of the bigger Glow Children fitted with cybernetic implants. You know that the Combine won the war against the Cybernetic Evolution, but it would appear at least one of their number survived and are obviously remembering your past treachery. The day of reckoning is soon at hand.

Eventually one day while you’re arranging yet another plan to take back parts of the Dust District you’ve lost control over, your head quarters is attacked by several of the biggest mutants you’ve ever seen. Many of them are of the cybernetic variety armed with weapons of devastating power that make quick work of your elite guards.

As you make your futile last stand with a plasma gun, one of the giant aberrations takes two shots to the chest and still manages to pick you up and rend you limb from limb with minimal effort on its part.


You wonder if you’ve lost your mind again, because you can’t believe you’re even considering this…

“Hey! Uh, hello! This is Zeropolis Guard territory! What do you want?” you call out to the group of cyborgs. One of them briefly talks to its heavier armed brethren and then steps forward to meet you; it’s a female, mostly human looking cyborg. She’s sort of cute, well cuter than what you’re used to around here anyway.

“Yes, greetings. I am AVA-93, former human remade, emissary prototype, from the Cybernetic Evolution.” She says unemotionally.
“Prototype?”
“Yes, I am one of a kind. The Cybernetic Evolution typically does not believe in wasting time with words. We prefer a more direct course of action as we are attempting to remake humanity to a higher state of evolution.”
“I see…so what purpose do you serve then since you guys tend to shoot first and ask questions later?”
“Why to make contact with you mutants of course. The Cybernetic Evolution is currently at war with a human organization called the Combine. They refuse to see the light, are a committed foe and greatly outnumber us. So we must find every means available to defeat them. We have heard that mutants are victims of human prejudices and that you are typically shot on sight when found outside the City.”
“Well I suppose you could say that, though I can sort of see why they might be suspicious of us, many of us aren’t exactly friendly types.”
“Yes, I have heard that most mutants are completely hostile, I am surprised to see the amount of organization you have shown as I thought this was not the case.”
“Around here, we’re the exception rather than the norm, so what did you have in mind?”
“An alliance of course. We would like you to help us destroy The Combine.”
“Whoa, hold on there. I’m not exactly in charge of this place; you’ll have to talk with Captain Salazar, as he runs the Zeropolis Guard. There’s also the fact that we’re in a war ourselves with a group of mutants that outnumber us, we wouldn’t be able to help much. Then there’s the whole fact…”

You hesitate, but AVA-93 demands that you continue.

“Yes?”
“Well there’s that fact that if you’re trying remake humans into cyborgs, what happens after you defeat all the humans? Will you try to remake us as well?”
“A thoughtful question. At the present time, you mutants are not suitable candidates for remaking, though what the future holds is unknown. However you can be rest assured that if we ally we will never attack you as long as we are at war with The Combine.”

That answer doesn’t really make you want to suddenly be their friend, though it was an honest answer. The only thing you can think of is let Captain Salazar decide how he wants to handle this, so you take AVA and the rest to see him.

During the talks Salazar doesn’t seem very concerned about what might happen in the future so much as what an alliance can do for him now. AVA mentions that they can supply him with their own high tech weapons to help in the war with the Shadow Horde, if the Zeropolis Guard starts raiding nearby Combine towns. He immediately agrees, and AVA leaves explaining that the first shipment will arrive as soon in the mean time they want an attack launched on the Combine immediately.

You advise strongly against this course of action. The Shadow Horde hasn’t even been attacking in large groups like it once did. You don’t like the idea of fighting a two front war and spreading your strength so thin, and you still don’t like the idea of allying with a bunch of cyborgs with a superiority complex. Salazar doesn’t want to hear it though; his vendetta against the Shadow Horde is too great. He wants them gone and is willing to do anything for the chance. In fact he’s pissed off at you for advising against it, so he says he’s sending YOU along with a few others to start attacking the Combine towns!

You leave Zeropolis for the first time in five years; it’s very odd to you. Everything seems different, like cleaner. Even the air seems fresher. You almost feel like you don’t belong here anymore, the others traveling with you feel the same way. Soon you approach a nearby town; of course you stay away for awhile plotting of how to approach this situation.

Over the course of a few months you organize successful raids on Combine towns, mostly at night, taking advantage of your night vision. (Which seems perfect at this point)
While you do feel superior to them, you don’t have any particular hatred for humans; this is just job to you, nothing more. You don’t have too much resistance for the most part. Most of the Combine force is holding off the Cybernetic Evolution. But you do lose people under your command, some through the attacks, but some due to being called back to Zeropolis. Apparently the Captain is having a lot more difficulty than he thought when he started sending troops down into the sewers to take the fight to the Shadow Horde. Eventually you’re all by yourself! In fact you’re wondering why Captain Salazar hasn’t called you back since you’re his second in command, you know he was pissed at you, but if he’s calling everyone else back, why not you?

At this point you can’t even really do too much, except maybe hang out in the wilderness sniping the occasional Combine citizen or soldier. In fact given this situation, you get the feeling he’s pretty much abandoned you.

Maybe you should just leave. It’s not like you couldn’t survive out here. Your time in Zeropolis has made you better in everyway. You could even withstand long periods of food and water if need be. (Though lately you’ve been eating the mutant wildlife and drinking their blood to sustain you, so it isn’t really a problem)
> You leave
You know when you’re not wanted. If your help is no longer appreciated then fuck it, you’ll miss your home, but you can find another. In fact maybe it’s for the best, if Salazar was calling people back, then maybe the Shadow Horde was winning and you certainly don’t want to be living there with them in charge.

You know that being a mutant, you won’t be liked among humans either, (Especially since you’ve been attacking them!) but maybe that isn’t the case everywhere. The Combine isn’t everywhere and their policies against mutants might not be the norm in other parts of the country. Hell, even without the Combine around there’s still the Cybernetic Evolution that you don’t trust.

In fact this whole area is fucked. Time to leave!

With this in mind you begin to walk, not knowing where you’ll end up, but definitely someplace better.


No time for fancy shit, you just have to RUN! You run and don’t look back, though you can still hear them chasing you, and other Horde members start popping out of other sewer gratings.

Eventually you get to the Dust District, but they’re still chasing you, that’s when you hear shouting coming from in front and above you as well.

“ALRIGHT START THROWING AND FIRING!”

Suddenly from up high bottles crash to the ground releasing gouts of fire. Molotovs. Next comes the sounds and flash of machine gun fire from everywhere.

“OH SHIT!” you shout and duck down and roll into a nearby building. The Horde was still chasing you, but most of them got burned by the Molotovs, the shrieking is unnatural sounding, but it’s soon put to an end when the flaming flailing bodies are shot by the machine guns. After it’s all over you pick yourself up only to get kicked in the ribs and a rifle shoved in your face.

“Don’t fuckin’ move Shadow scum!” a uniformed mutant orders.
“I’m not…”
“Silence!” another kick, this time to the nuts. While you hold your crotch in pain, another uniformed mutant arrives, but this one has a higher rank.

“Alright Private, that’ll do for now, let’s see what this fucker has to say about his buddies…what the fuck? This ain’t no Shadow! He’s too fuckin’ pretty for one thing, and not nearly muscular enough.”
“(Groan) I’m not, I live in this area! I was scavenging Downtown with another and we got caught after dark…he’s dead.” You say picking yourself up.
“Yeah, that’s usually what happens. Woulda happened to you too had we not set up base here in the Dust District. This place will be completely safe from now on as it is officially under direct protection by the Zeropolis Guard. I’m Captain Salazar.”

Well that explains the uniforms.

“…yeah I heard of you guys. I also heard you only had scouts in the area though.”
“Well we move fast, and we needed a new base camp. Our last position was steadily being overrun by Ferals during the day and the Shadow Horde at night. But I think here is a good position to make a stand. This area doesn’t have as many sewer entrances, Feral activity is low, and best of all there’s the abandoned factory and plant nearby. Maybe one day we can power up the entire City again, but for right now we’re trying to just get power to this district, though even that will take awhile. The Zeropolis Guard is dedicated to bringing order to this city and I think this is the best place to start.”
“Hey that’s great, okay I’ve had a hard day; I think I’ll just go home now…”

Captain Salazar suddenly stops you.

“While you’re free to go back home citizen, I can’t help but notice your weapons…now while I certainly understand the need for personal protection, especially given this unstable situation and your current choice of profession, so you may keep your pistol. However, your assault rifle would be of great use to us. We need all the maximum firepower we can get to better defend this area.”
“Well it doesn’t have many bullets left though.” You say, but Salazar merely smiles at your attempt to keep your rifle. The private who kicked you looks at you like he’s anxious for you to try something.
“That’s alright; we have plenty of ammo suitable for it. However, if you wish to actively join the Zeropolis Guard, then you certainly would have need for such a weapon… do you wish to join?”
“Uh no. That’s okay.” You say helplessly handing over you weapon. Salazar takes it.
“Pity, you seem like you’d make an excellent solider. Still, our offer is always open and I’m sure you’ll be able to easily find us. You may return to your home.”

You make you way back home, in fact you’ll be really glad to get home, today wasn’t very fun, reminds you of why you always preferred your own company. You sort of wonder though about how things might change with the Guard messing around in the area. While this warehouse is sort of in an isolated part of the Dust District, you can only imagine that it’s a matter of time before the Guard start snooping around here and given you have a generator and water recycler, they’ll probably want this place for themselves and you’d have to go live in one of the crappy neighborhoods like everyone else.

Of course you might be able to swing things to your benefit if you did join the Zeropolis Guard, though that might mean they’ll be sending you on missions where you can get yourself killed.

Before you fall asleep, you think about the future and how you’re going to deal with this situation.
> You stay out of it
You decide to stay out of this little war they got going, plan on just keeping a low profile. Hopefully they’ll never come scouting around your warehouse to closely.

A few months pass and The Zeropolis Guard discovers your little slice of solitude one day, you awaken to the sounds of your door being blown off its hinges and soldiers coming in.

“Holy shit, there’s someone living here!” one of them remarks.
“What the fuck man? You blew up my door!” you shout trying to gather your wits from being asleep.
“Yeah? Well what the hell are you doing down here anyway?” a mean heavily scarred mutant asks.
“I live here! What’s it to you? Don’t you have Ferals to kill or some shit?”
“We were looking for some and we found this place…looks like you got quite the set up here. Generator, water recycler…this place would make a good living quarters for the Captain.”
“What? HELL NO! This is my home! You can’t just…”
“Quiet civvy, this place is now the property of The Zeropolis Guard, you got a problem with it, tough. Maybe if you join up though you can help protect the place, but for now you better get your shit and leave AND you can leave that pistol right there as well. You’re under our protection, you don’t need that anymore.”
“Fuck you! I’ve spoke with Captain Salazar before and even HE let me keep it!”
“Yeah, well things have changed since then, we’re uh…having a weapon shortage, so shut the fuck up and get the fuck out! You ain’t winning this one and if you persist in this act of civil disobedience I’ll fuckin’ just shoot you right now!”

You have little choice in this matter. You grab what little belongings you can still take with you and get evicted from your home. You eventually find an abandoned building in one of the neighborhoods to dwell in, but its not nearly as nice. You try to go complain to Captain Salazar personally, but you just get stonewalled and blown off all the time. They just tell you that if you really want a weapon that badly you should officially join instead of complaining. In fact they begin to warn you that if you don’t like being under their protection, you can leave and see how much you’d like it elsewhere.

That is a tempting thing to do because you’ll be damned if you’ll join these fuckin’ fascists at this point. Though you’re mad enough to try to do something a little more proactive as well.
> You leave the Dust District
You don’t really have the connections to start inciting revolutions. You wouldn’t know where to begin and chances are you’d end up getting yourself killed immediately. As much as you don’t want to leave, you can’t live under such oppression anymore, so you decide to travel to another part of Zeropolis.

You travel quite a bit, before remembering again that the rest of the City isn’t nearly as safe as the Dust District! You’re attacked by Ferals at nearly every turn, and worse you don’t even have any type of long range weapon to fight them off with. Even the mutants that aren’t Ferals have a gang like mentality that is hostile to any not in their immediate group. After running and hiding many times, and being wounded as well, you come to the conclusion that you’ll have to grin and bear it and return to the Dust District.

Sadly you never make it, as a particularly large group of Ferals ambush you and proceed to make you wish you never came to the City in the first place.


You decide to stay out of this little war they got going, plan on just keeping a low profile. Hopefully they’ll never come scouting around your warehouse to closely.

A few months pass and The Zeropolis Guard discovers your little slice of solitude one day, you awaken to the sounds of your door being blown off its hinges and soldiers coming in.

“Holy shit, there’s someone living here!” one of them remarks.
“What the fuck man? You blew up my door!” you shout trying to gather your wits from being asleep.
“Yeah? Well what the hell are you doing down here anyway?” a mean heavily scarred mutant asks.
“I live here! What’s it to you? Don’t you have Ferals to kill or some shit?”
“We were looking for some and we found this place…looks like you got quite the set up here. Generator, water recycler…this place would make a good living quarters for the Captain.”
“What? HELL NO! This is my home! You can’t just…”
“Quiet civvy, this place is now the property of The Zeropolis Guard, you got a problem with it, tough. Maybe if you join up though you can help protect the place, but for now you better get your shit and leave AND you can leave that pistol right there as well. You’re under our protection, you don’t need that anymore.”
“Fuck you! I’ve spoke with Captain Salazar before and even HE let me keep it!”
“Yeah, well things have changed since then, we’re uh…having a weapon shortage, so shut the fuck up and get the fuck out! You ain’t winning this one and if you persist in this act of civil disobedience I’ll fuckin’ just shoot you right now!”

You have little choice in this matter. You grab what little belongings you can still take with you and get evicted from your home. You eventually find an abandoned building in one of the neighborhoods to dwell in, but its not nearly as nice. You try to go complain to Captain Salazar personally, but you just get stonewalled and blown off all the time. They just tell you that if you really want a weapon that badly you should officially join instead of complaining. In fact they begin to warn you that if you don’t like being under their protection, you can leave and see how much you’d like it elsewhere.

That is a tempting thing to do because you’ll be damned if you’ll join these fuckin’ fascists at this point. Though you’re mad enough to try to do something a little more proactive as well.
> You incite a revolt
You don’t give a shit if it kills you, you’re not going to just stand by and let these fucktards treat you like their bitch. You immediately begin to make plans.

You start off just by getting a feel of the general opinion of the Guard, by others. So far, there isn’t a lot opinion one way or another. They feel safer, but much like you they have suffered the liberties taken by the Guard. Eventually you do find a few people that outright don’t like them, and you capitalize on that by having those people to “recruit” and influence others.

After a few months you’ve managed to form somewhat of a real underground movement. The next steps are taken which involves out right sneak attacks on Guard soldiers and taking their weapons. This is when the Guard begins to take real notice of the Dust Dissident Movement and begins becoming more restrictive. This of course ends up working in your favor as now even those that had no previous problem with the Guard begin openly complaining. In the meantime you change locations all the time just barely keeping one step ahead of the Guard.

A year passes and the entire Dust District is in as much chaos as it was right after the bombs first hit. The Zeropolis Guard is fighting a losing war with the Shadow Horde as well as trying to put down an on going insurrection. You love it. Everyday more of them die and are unable to replace their losses, eventually Captain Salazar himself is assassinated by one of your own people breaking the hold and morale of the Zeropolis Guard. The survivors end up leaving and scattering to unknown parts of the City.

You’ve won, but it is a Pyrrhic victory.

Without the Guard keeping order and routine protection, the Shadow Horde moves in at full force. They begin to stalk the streets at night and breaking into homes to slaughter its inhabitants.

The Dust Dissident Movement attempts to take up the mantle of protectors, but the Shadow Horde is a different type of enemy, they don’t try to occupy; they come in and destroy. Hit and run tactics are useless against an enemy that does the same thing and does it a whole lot better as you unfortunately come to find out when you’re meeting with your remaining people one night and a bunch of Horde members swarm your hideout and kill everyone inside.


You don’t really have anything better to do, and you are sort of interested in learning more about your surroundings. You are living here now after all.

“Uh sure I’ll go with you. What do I do exactly?”
“You’ll go? Great! You don’t really have to do too much really, I just need someone to help with the whole protection thing while I search, since Ted here is being a jackass and not giving me any bullets!”
“Hey those are in damn scarce supply in the first place! In fact, you better start finding them on your own soon, because I don’t have too many to spare anymore anyway. I need something to defend my shop with. Here!” Ted pulls out three bullets from his ragged pockets and gives them to Carl. “That’s coming out anything you bring back too, and if you guys are going downtown, you better do it now, before nightfall. See you later.”

You and Carl set off, while you’re walking you notice other mutants wandering in the neighborhood, but they don’t attack, in fact many of them are just watching the both of you or going about their business. (Like catching a rat to eat)

“So is this area safe or something? Nobody’s attacking us.” You ask.
“Of course it’s safe, well safe as anything can be in this place. I mean there’s still always the Ferals that roam around, but not so much around here anymore. The people around here in the Dust District don’t even try to eat one another. Probably due to the fact that a lot of people used to live here and work together in the factory and warehouses nearby, so I guess there’s that sense of unity as it were. Though I’m sure most of them did attack each other at one time. Still, this is a severely new situation, you can’t blame TOO much on what happened during people’s madness. Weird what happened though, I mean do you think the enemy dropped some sort of nuclear nerve agent combo on this place? Or did we all just go temporarily insane in the face of the shear devastation?”
“I really couldn’t tell you, Carl. Maybe the second one I guess.” You say keeping your secret information on the reasons to yourself.
“Yeah, doesn’t take much for us to fall apart I suppose. The Zeropolis Guard have also claimed they’re going to make this place even safer when they set up a new base here, though I sort of wish they’d just leave us alone. I get the impression they’ll be trying to tell us all what to do and conscripting us to fight the Shadow Horde.”
“What is the Shadow Horde anyway?”
“Man, you don’t know who THEY are? Then again you didn’t know the city name either! Anyway The Shadow Horde is a group of mutants who primarily live in the sewers, though they do come out at night and attack anyone who isn’t part their group. They’re sort of like the Ferals, except they are a lot more organized and even more vicious. I’ve heard they have a leader of some sort; I’ve only heard rumors though; ranging from a giant abomination, to a beautiful priestess of some sort. Have a hard time believing a lot of them, the only thing I do know is you don’t want to get outside at night, let alone even enter the sewers!”

Carl continues to about various things of Zeropolis on your way Downtown. As fucked up as things are, you can’t help but be fascinated by it all. You feel like you’re actually living in some sort of 80s low budget post apocalyptic movie. You ask him if anyone actually leaves Zeropolis, but he says it’s rare. The Ferals and other more territorial mutants seem content on staying in the City, and as for the other “normal” ones, it’s happened, but it seems mutation isn’t a common theme outside Zeropolis. Most mutants are shot on sight or at least chased off. At least those are the stories he’s heard from a couple of people he knows that have left only to come back.

The closer you get to Downtown the more Carl stops talking only telling you to keep a look out and to be quiet. Lots of Ferals fight each other in the Downtown area and will obviously attack anyone else. Plus there are other scavengers here that will try to bushwhack each other as well. Carl pulls out a large bag and you and he start going into various devastated buildings where he grabs things of varying interest.

A few instance you see large groups of Ferals in the street, but Carl tells you not to fire, since they’re all fighting each other at the time. Another instance when you’re on the second floor of an apartment store, another mutant clobbers Carl with a lead pipe and tries to make off with the bag of goodies, but a couple of shots put the thief down.

“Thanks. Oh fuck, I think the shots caught the attention of the Ferals outside, we better get out of here!”

You and Carl rush out the building and after you fire a few more shots at the Ferals you both make a beeline back the Dust District, unfortunately you and Carl have to retreat and backtrack several times to avoid large groups of Ferals, until finally when you get out of the area, its twilight and you still haven’t gotten back to the Dust District yet.

You and Carl hear a nearby sewer manhole opening up…

“Oh shit we’re gonna die!” Carl yells and starts running. He’s in such a hurry to getaway he trips and dumps his bag with all the contents inside! He frantically starts putting everything back in, but already you can see the Shadow Horde starting to come out, and yeah they do look a hell of a lot meaner than the typical Ferals, which is pretty hard to do. The fact that they start shouting

“CARL GET YOUR ASS UP, WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!” you yell and start blasting Horde members with your assault rifle, picking your shots, but when they fire back, you can’t stand your ground for long and run leaving Carl behind.

You hear Carl trying to catch up with you, but you soon hear more shots, yell of pain followed by the collapsing of a body. You turn around to see one of the Horde trying to finish Carl off with a spiked bat, but he blasts the mutant in the head with his pistol twice killing it. He’s wounded and even if you went back to get him, the rest of the Horde is closing in and you’d never outrun them if you carried Carl on your back.

Sensing the end is near; Carl uses his last bullet to save himself a torturous death by the hands of the Horde. Of course now you have worry about yourself.
> You try to lose the Horde
You begin taking side streets and back alleys in a vain attempt to lose your pursuers, the only problem with this is tactic is, it isn’t like there’s only one sewer grating. They’re all over Zeropolis meaning the Shadow Horde can pop up out of anywhere so “losing” them isn’t really possible.

You’re running down an alley when all of a sudden a very LARGE being comes leaping out of nowhere in front of you. Its ugly, its muscles are unnaturally large and it’s fully intent on killing you.

You let fly your remaining rounds from your assault rifle, but it doesn’t even stop the big mutant. You attempt to pull your pistol, but with one shot from its own, it blows a big hole in your body, and then it finishes you off by stabbing you repeatedly in the head with its knife.


Something you wouldn’t ever consider eating before suddenly makes a lot of sense to you. You start off by grabbing the nearest crawling roaches you see and start popping them in your mouth and chew.

They taste terrible, somehow though you don’t suffer a gag reflex though. You just find them unpleasant, like eating something bitter rather than disgusting. After having had enough of eating bugs you try to catch a rat. It takes awhile, but eventually you stomp on one severely crippling it and then stomp once more to kill it.

Eating a raw rat doesn’t particularly taste any better, but again you don’t suffer any sort of natural revulsion during this act. It would seem you’ve gone through a change of some sort, one that has put you in a better frame of mind for survival. One that has also put your body in better condition for survival as well since you suffer no ill effects from eating such unclean creatures under equally unclean conditions. You temporarily have some problems with lice and fleas you catch from the rats, but even that doesn’t really become a problem considering the rest hair has fallen out now. (Well you have a few wisps left)  You skin also begins to harden in time, making fleas no longer a problem. Whatever internal parasites any of these might’ve carried also have no effect as it seems your resistance and immunity system has increased quite a bit.

You look in the bathroom mirror one day and see that you’ve changed alright. Changed into something better. You aren’t going to win any beauty contests, but you’re going to live…

A year passes…

You’ve been living a relatively simple life of eating and sleeping and it’s basically been enough. For the past year your mind hasn’t really been the most stable, so you haven’t really thought about anything other than your immediate survival, and given you have a water supply and the rats and roaches for food, you haven’t ventured outside of the GZS warehouse since you entered.

That’s starting to change.

Lately your mind seems to have a little more clarity. Indeed you’re starting to feel like “yourself” before the change. Not entirely like yourself, but you don’t go shithouse rat crazy screaming at the walls like you used to.

You’ve been getting a little curious about the rest of the City. If you’re mostly sane now, maybe other survivors are as well. Maybe even some things have been fixed; it would be nice if they were, as its getting boring where you’re currently staying. Taking your weapons with you, you leave your new home to explore. (Making sure to hide the trapdoor before leaving of course)

The City streets are still as desolate as you remember them, and mostly empty as well. You expect to run into gangs of mutants though. You suddenly stop and think about that for a moment and realize that YOU are also a mutant now!

Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean mutantism is a club. You’re sure there’s a lot of fighting for resources. In fact you come across some fighting, though in a different way than you’d imagine. While you’re walking through a neighborhood by a corner store that has all its windows boarded up, you hear voices inside. You step through the open doorway to investigate. It’s dark inside, but some candles light up the place.

“Ted, what do you mean you won’t gimme anything for this? This is a solid gold watch man!” a skinny mutant asks an exceptionally ugly one eyed mutant he has pistol strapped to his side.
“Goddamn it Carl, would you fuckin’ think? What the hell am I gonna do with a gold piece of shit that doesn’t even work anymore in the first place?”
“Well can’t you trade it for something? I mean gold’s gotta be worth something to someone! It’s not like I gave you a sack of dollar bills!”
“Didn’t stop you from trying though did it? Look Carl, unless it’s something useful you know damn well I ain’t taking it. Bring back some batteries, a first aid kit, hell some canned corn would be a welcome change of pace than watery roach soup! Just stop bringing me shit I have no use for!”
“But Carl! I need some bullets! You can’t expect me to do any scavenging downtown without bullets for my pistol! How will I defend myself against the Ferals or how about at night when the Shadow Horde comes out?”
“Cry me a river Carl, you’re a fast guy I’m sure you can outrun the roving gangs of Ferals, ain’t that hard. And second of all you shouldn’t even BE out at night! If you get caught out at night I got no sympathy for what happens to you! Now…” suddenly Ted’s one good eye catches sight of you.

“Who the fuck are you pretty boy?” Ted asks, Carl just backs off when he sees the assault rifle strapped to your back.

“Pretty boy? Have you seen my face?” you retort.
“Yeah, I see your fucking face an’ you’re a fuckin’ pretty boy as far as I’m concerned. Shit you ain’t even got any scars. So what the hell do you want, I ain’t seen you before. Ain’t seen too many here with an assault rifle either. You part of the Zeropolis Guard? Then again you don’t wear the uniform…maybe you just killed one of them then? Heh heh.”
“Who are the Zeropolis Guard?”
“You ain’t heard of them? Huh, well they’ve only just been making scouting missions in this area. Basically a collection of ex-National Guardsmen that insisted on staying here to the very end. They got the best hardware as far as I know, but the delusional fuckers think it’s STILL their job to keep peace in the damn City. Ain’t no peace in Zeropolis!”
“What’s Zeropolis exactly?” you ask feeling completely out of the loop, which only gets you some mighty strange stares by Carl and Ted.

“Uh, Zeropolis, y’know…The City? That’s what this place is called now.” Carl says.
“Holy shit pretty boy, you been livin’ under a damn rock or something?”
“Well, uh sort of…”
“I guess so! Where the hell ARE you from?
“Er…I never actually lived in the City...I guess you can kind of say I got trapped here and then shortly after went mad for a little while and I’m only just now starting to feel like myself.” You explain without giving too much information out.
“Hmm, well that might explain some things. I think we all know about that madness you’re speaking of. Think it happened to everyone after this place got nuked, still going on for most people. You get that hunger craving and violent thoughts pervade your mind…though the first one I killed and ate was my wife so it wasn’t ALL bad har har har!” Ted laughs. “Hey how many people did you eat during that time?”
“Uh, none actually.”
“None? Ah, you must be like Carl here. He just ate roaches and rats because even when the madness hit him he still was a big pussy!”
“Fuck you Ted! I’M the one going out risking my ass scavenging, not YOU! I…just didn’t want to eat anybody…I guess I just never suffered the madness as much as the rest.”
“Yeah, well anyway what do you guys actually sell here?” you ask.
“Well Carl doesn’t sell shit, because he doesn’t own this place, I do. And as you can probably tell we run on the barter system here that being the only real way to do business anymore. However I have a wide variety of items, but not obviously not right here, since this part of the store ain’t the most secure as you can see, but bring me something I might find useful and maybe we can do business; just don’t bring fuckin’ broken gold watches!” Ted exclaims looking back at Carl.

“There’s a lot of stuff downtown to scavenge, hey…maybe you could come with me?” Carl suddenly asks hopefully.
> You go back home
“Nah, that’s alright. I guess I’ll be heading out.” You reply and leave the shop with the full intent on going home.

On your way back home you unfortunately run into a couple of the Zeropolis Guardsmen who seem intent on giving you a hard time.

“Whoa there, who the fuck are you, and where do you think you’re going with that rifle on your back?” one asks.
“What the hell difference does it make to you?”
“It makes a difference because we patrol this area all the damn time and we’ve never seen you before. Not to mention you look fucking suspicious with an assault rifle on your person!”
“…What the fuck? What about you guys?! You got damn machine guns and grenades!”
“Yeah, well WE’RE members of The Zeropolis Guard! We need this shit in our war with the Shadow Horde, while you’re just a lowly civvy! We’re going to be occupying this area soon and you won’t need something like that as protection anymore. In fact a fine weapon like that would be better put to use by The Zeropolis Guard, so you probably should hand it over right now.”
“Ha ha, you’re a funny guy. I don’t think so.” You say.
“That wasn’t a request, that was a goddamn order!”
“Sorry, but as you just pointed out I’m just a lowly civvy, so I’m not inclined to follow your stupid ass orders.”

This last remark does it. The two soldiers now have their excuse, they raise their weapons and you do like wise. A small shoot out occurs in which you end up killing one of them and wounding the other, however they manage to wound you severely as well. As you attempt to take cover behind a wrecked car, the surviving Guardsmen throws a grenade in your direction which you are unable to react to in time before it blows you up.


You decide to stay, and think about what Owen said about the water supply and the anti-radiation drugs in it then you think about what happened to a majority of the survivors. It didn’t seem to do them any good, but he was right; it WAS stupid to come here! You can’t really do much about it now, but you’re hoping that water can keep you from dying a slow horrible death, though you don’t know how it works exactly since you weren’t drinking it before you absorbed rads. Still, you’ll try anything now.

The first thing you do is start drinking the water, and a lot of it. You also wonder about Owen’s supervisor Lisa. He did say she was supposed to return soon, and you form some ideas on how to handle the situation when it arises (to keep your mind occupied), but as it turns out, she never does. Probably got killed no doubt.

A few days go by and there’s not much to do for entertainment purposes and you’re reluctant to leave your “safe haven” now. There are some books in what is Lisa’s room that you peruse through. You also look for maybe some notes on her research since the stuff Owen told you about did sound interesting. Maybe even ideas on what the drugs in the water supply might’ve done to people (Something ELSE you’re starting to worry about) but unfortunately you don’t find anything. She must’ve taken those with her. Owen’s room has an old TV set which amusingly has an equally as old game console hooked up to it. You spend a lot of time shooting different colored circular objects with your white triangle on the screen.

After a week you start feeling weird. Like mildly delirious. You start lying in bed a lot, only getting up to quench your thirst since you don’t have much of an appetite.

After a month you start feeling sick. You begin throwing up and having diarrhea even though you’ve barely been eating anything. You have the shakes and you often just lie on the floor aching all over you body. You drink the water in the steadily failing hopes that it will miraculously cure you.

When patches of your hair start falling out, and cough up bits of blood, you really start to lose all hope.

“Oh fuck…I don’t wanna die like this…shit…” you sob.

You begin thinking about suicide, but you’re so weak that the one time you seriously attempt it; you collapse on the floor when reaching for your pistol and fall unconscious for a full day.

When you wake up, you feel a little better physically, but not much. However your mind is a little warped. As it turns out this is somewhat fortunate as you don’t worry about dying so much anymore. You do start talking to yourself at great lengths though. You begin having bizarre thoughts about things in general. Sometimes you go into a fit and start ranting until you’re hoarse.

Another month passes and you’re completely better physically, in fact you feel stronger than you ever did before. Your mind is still in la la land though. You begin to get very violent. You begin punching the walls (and even doing some damage to them) and ripping up books. What temporarily “sobers” you up is when you smash the food dispenser, breaking it completely. While you still have real food left you’ve just destroyed your only means of food-substitute when the real stuff runs out.

“SHIT!” you yell. “I gotta get a fuckin…grip…I gotta get fuckin’ food!”

You grab your pistol and assault rifle and throw open the door in search of food.

After climbing back up to the surface, you notice that you can see pretty well in the dark warehouse. It would appear you’ve developed some minor “dark vision”. In the darkness you also notice that the warehouse has lots of rats and roaches crawling around in it.

Those could be food…
> You find something else
NO! You must have something of substance! Something with more meat! You quickly leave the warehouse and go loping around the City like some sort of animal.

You stalk the streets in search of prey but find nothing! You begin snarling to yourself and getting madder, but suddenly you hear someone talking loudly nearby. You get quiet and slowly look around the corner and see three men in radiation suits carrying weapons.

“Albert, for the last time will you fucking calm down, there ain’t gonna be nobody here! If you think this place is going to be crawling with mutant creatures, you’ve been watching too many movies!”
“Well how do YOU know, Roger? I mean how do we know it won’t be?”
“Look, Harry gave us this mission to do some scouting, not standing around with our thumbs up our asses arguing, now come on!”
“Shh! Did you hear that?”
“Christ, Steve not you too…”

Before Roger can complete his retort you come around the corner and fire your assault rifle at them haphazardly. You hit two of them before one of them runs off. One of them lies completely still as you approach, but the other is still twitching and convulsing as their body begins to shut down. You finish him off with a couple of blows to the head with your rifle butt before ripping the protective suit to get to the precious meat inside. However the noise of your weapon has caused other mutants to suddenly come out of the woodwork. They too want the flesh of these humans, but you won’t let them have it! This is YOUR kill!

The other mutants aren’t as well armed as you are, and when they try to take your kill you fire at them and begin trying to drag it back to your home. You only have so many bullets though and eventually it’s a feeding frenzy where you’re all fighting for the biggest piece. Eventually you grab a leg and an arm and run back to your lair to eat in solitude. When you’re finished you belch in satisfaction and fall asleep.

In the months to follow, you will continue to participate in these activities, though mutant flesh never seems to taste as good as that of human. You cease keeping up any sense of appearances or hygene, you don’t even sleep in the GZS research room anymore, preferring to sleep in the actually warehouse along with the rats and roaches. (Though you still go to drink from the water recycler down there) You’ve completely given in to the madness.

A year passes…

You wake up again like you always do, slightly hungry. You grab a nearby roach and chomp on that until you can find something more substantial. It’s getting more difficult to hunt in this area though. For some reason most of the mutants here don’t seem to act like you do anymore. Many of them have gotten “better” and have even been engaging in somewhat normal activities. You know there are still hunting groups of others like you holdup in some nearby factories, but you were never a social animal, you’re a lone hunter. You don’t like to share. You also know not to stay out after night, as you’ve seen mutants much larger than yourself to stalk the streets, even you don’t want to mess with them if you don’t have to.

So far you’ve been successful despite the odds steadily becoming against you, however it would seem that event continue to conspire against you. A large group of mutants dressed in uniforms have been patrolling the area as of late in fact they’ve been purposely trying to make it safe by wiping out your types. You’ve come in conflict with a couple of them, but the firepower they pack is too much for you and you’ve long since run out of bullets. (At this point you’re just beating others over the head with the rifle or pistol whipping them)

Granted life has never been safe or easy, but now it’s been getting particularly dangerous. Even in your simple delusional state, you’re wondering if you should find new hunting grounds.
> You stay where you are
You know this area, and you don’t want to leave, so you attempt to keep a lower profile. It’s very difficult at first, and you struggle to keep your violent urges in check. You keep to eating rats and roaches. As a few month go by you begin to feel somewhat different. You don’t feel quite as “insane” anymore though your mind is still a little around the bend. You never really leave the warehouse anymore and begin sleeping in the GZS outpost again, spending hours talking and laughing to yourself in between snacks.

Eventually the uniformed mutants find your little hideaway. When you see them you’re surprised and annoyed, but you don’t feel the need to attack them. (Though you wouldn’t anyway since they’re heavily armed)

“Hey! Get out of my house!”
“See I knew this place had Ferals.” One of them says.
“I dunno, he hasn’t attacked us yet, you sure he’s a Feral?”
“Hm, you might be right, he sort of looks like one though, of course maybe he’s gotten better, y’know the Captain said it happens sometimes.”
“Hey! I said get outta my house!” you exclaim again.

The uniformed mutants continue to ignore you.

“What the hell do you think this place is?”
“I dunno, but the Captain will be interested, with the fact there’s a generator and water recycler here…alright sorry to do this, but you gotta leave. This place is now the property of the Zeropolis Guard, which is us, and not you. So get your stuff and leave. You can go move into one of the many abandoned buildings in one of the neighborhoods.”

You attempt to protest, but the soldiers just roughly grab you and force you out of your home and throw you out on the street. They then warn you not to try that again or else they won’t be as nice next time. Having nowhere else to go, you follow their instructions and begin living in one of the abandoned buildings in one of the neighborhoods.

Months go by and you learn more about the things going on in the Dust District. (The area that you’ve been dwelling in) You don’t really understand all the intricate details, but from what you can tell, The Zeropolis Guard is attempting to make this area their base of sorts in their war against the Shadow Horde (The sewer mutants) part of this organizing involves killing out the remaining Ferals in the area and rebuilding it.

As you are basically under the protection of the Zeropolis Guard, you’re also subject to their whims and they expect you to pitch in and be a productive citizen like everyone else. In your case this means conscription.

You’re in the army now, but you’re still just trying to keep your mind from wandering. You never really did get over the “year of madness” that you suffered. Your mind is still disjointed, though when you kill Shadow Horde members, you do feel a sense of fulfillment, so it isn’t all bad. Many of your fellow soldiers kind of stay away from you though and you aren’t really considered for anything greater than just a regular soldier.

Eventually during one of the many battles with the Shadow Horde, you are struck down by a brutal blow to head with a very large piece of steel. You maintain consciousness for a few seconds before seeing a big boot come down on your face, making you just one of the many causalities in this mutant war.


NO! You must have something of substance! Something with more meat! You quickly leave the warehouse and go loping around the City like some sort of animal.

You stalk the streets in search of prey but find nothing! You begin snarling to yourself and getting madder, but suddenly you hear someone talking loudly nearby. You get quiet and slowly look around the corner and see three men in radiation suits carrying weapons.

“Albert, for the last time will you fucking calm down, there ain’t gonna be nobody here! If you think this place is going to be crawling with mutant creatures, you’ve been watching too many movies!”
“Well how do YOU know, Roger? I mean how do we know it won’t be?”
“Look, Harry gave us this mission to do some scouting, not standing around with our thumbs up our asses arguing, now come on!”
“Shh! Did you hear that?”
“Christ, Steve not you too…”

Before Roger can complete his retort you come around the corner and fire your assault rifle at them haphazardly. You hit two of them before one of them runs off. One of them lies completely still as you approach, but the other is still twitching and convulsing as their body begins to shut down. You finish him off with a couple of blows to the head with your rifle butt before ripping the protective suit to get to the precious meat inside. However the noise of your weapon has caused other mutants to suddenly come out of the woodwork. They too want the flesh of these humans, but you won’t let them have it! This is YOUR kill!

The other mutants aren’t as well armed as you are, and when they try to take your kill you fire at them and begin trying to drag it back to your home. You only have so many bullets though and eventually it’s a feeding frenzy where you’re all fighting for the biggest piece. Eventually you grab a leg and an arm and run back to your lair to eat in solitude. When you’re finished you belch in satisfaction and fall asleep.

In the months to follow, you will continue to participate in these activities, though mutant flesh never seems to taste as good as that of human. You cease keeping up any sense of appearances or hygene, you don’t even sleep in the GZS research room anymore, preferring to sleep in the actually warehouse along with the rats and roaches. (Though you still go to drink from the water recycler down there) You’ve completely given in to the madness.

A year passes…

You wake up again like you always do, slightly hungry. You grab a nearby roach and chomp on that until you can find something more substantial. It’s getting more difficult to hunt in this area though. For some reason most of the mutants here don’t seem to act like you do anymore. Many of them have gotten “better” and have even been engaging in somewhat normal activities. You know there are still hunting groups of others like you holdup in some nearby factories, but you were never a social animal, you’re a lone hunter. You don’t like to share. You also know not to stay out after night, as you’ve seen mutants much larger than yourself to stalk the streets, even you don’t want to mess with them if you don’t have to.

So far you’ve been successful despite the odds steadily becoming against you, however it would seem that event continue to conspire against you. A large group of mutants dressed in uniforms have been patrolling the area as of late in fact they’ve been purposely trying to make it safe by wiping out your types. You’ve come in conflict with a couple of them, but the firepower they pack is too much for you and you’ve long since run out of bullets. (At this point you’re just beating others over the head with the rifle or pistol whipping them)

Granted life has never been safe or easy, but now it’s been getting particularly dangerous. Even in your simple delusional state, you’re wondering if you should find new hunting grounds.
> You leave the area
Sensing when would be the best time to leave; you abandon your home and move on to another part of the City that’s less organized. You end up in the Downtown area, oddly enough you end up taking residence in the same building you once worked at.

You haven’t gotten a “feel” for this area yet and initially are at a disadvantage when hunting. Many times your “dinner” comes from those who were attempting to hunt you, but failed to recognize your strength and quickness. Soon though, you do alright.

Your life is pretty simple from here on out, you hunt for others and you try to survive, you last longer than most, but eventually the move towards order marches forward and comes to the Downtown area.

The uniformed mutants eventually attempt to organize this area as well in their efforts to gain territory from another group of united mutants namely the ones that live in the sewers. Once again your type are hunted down and wiped out.

This time you are caught in the open by several of them and are shot like a dog in the street.