text: [Themes: horror, horror, post-apocalyptic]
  
  There is no reason to wait. once the guards are dead, the other two are not even a threat and you can get all the information you need from them before you eat them.
  
  You lunge suddenly and punch one guard cleanly in the jaw. You are not a trained fighter but with your superhuman strength and speed you still hit like a professional heavyweight. You watch the man go unconscious immediately but the momentum tips him over the rail and he falls from the silo. You are already spinning though. The other guard starts to react and the woman starts to scream but you are too fast and punch the guard in the throat before slamming him into the ground and snapping his neck, the haze around his mind vanishes instantly. Seconds later you notice the haze from the first guard vanish too "The fall finished him off then" You think as you turn back to a horrified and crying woman.
  
  "Oh don't worry, I wont kill you right away, I will keep you and the other one alive for a few days, I need information afterall." You grab her and she is unable to resist your sheer strength ans you pull her through the hatch and toss her over the railing and into the silo. The man tries to intervene but you are again to strong and he is tipped over too. You leave them down there while you take the time to bring both bodies and guns inside, leaving no trace of your fight visible and begin feeding on one of them.
  
  You vaguely hear sobbing from the woman below and the man alternating between cursing you and comforting her but what does it matter? They are just prey after all. Finally your hunger is sated and you look down at them, leaving the blood smeared on your chin from your feeding. "So our roles are somewhat reversed then?" You call down.
  
  THe woman is clearly too distraught to answer right away so the man does "Harbinger, that's what you are!" he says it like an isult but it is a compliment really, you are better than them after all. "Indeed, that is one of my names" you reply with a smile "You made this rather easy for me too, trusting a stranger like that, tut tut."
  
  THe woman then pauses her crying long enough to speak up "But you saved me, you were horribly wounded doing it!" You just smirk. "Random luck for you, I was actually intending to kill you when I noticed the mutants too late, had to kill them first or they would have torn me apart while I attacked you. Giving me enough time to begin healing up was nice though" you say as you remove your temporary bandage and show your wounds already well on the way to healing. "Now, you will be telling me where this little colony of yours is before you die. You'll find I can be fairly persuasive when needed.
  
  The man clams up and the woman goes back to sobbing.
  
  > kill the woman and the man now, screw the information, you know where to find to compound alone
  You look down at the two of them and run through a plan in your mind "The compound is about two days walk North, it is a walled community and still defended. That means it will be on a main road and I will see smoke from fires soon enough. I have no need for them to live."
  
  You pick up one of the rifles and look down at them "Change of plans, I know where the compound is and don't need to torture you. Take this as a blessing, I'm really being rather nice considering the alternatives."
  
  It takes you three shots since you aren't the best with guns but they lie dead in the silo, sources of food for once the guard is gone. You spend the rest of the day feasting on human flesh. and sleep through the night with no hunger bothering you for the first time in an age.
  
  Morning comes with more feasting, as does the rest of the day, and the next. All in all you spend 4 more days there eating every good bit of meat and organ off the four before finally setting out North "This is the only road in the area and it heads North, I am practically guaranteed to find their little community just by following it" You think as you set out, pack on your back we a few leftovers and your bat swinging in your hand.
  
  > Northward with killing on the mind
  You start out North with a swing in your step. You are full to bursting with energy from eating the humans, all your wounds are healed up and you know where to find a whole group of humans just waiting to be eaten. "What more could a man want!" You say aloud to the surrounding fields.
  
  Having gorged yourself over the past few days they hunger is staying low to nonexistent and you know it will stay that way for a few days more. Not that you would pass up another meal, best to stay ahead of these sorts of things.
  
  After a few hours you begin testing your powers again. You were able to get your senses to reach further than before and had some fun controlling the shamblers in the barn while you feasted but you need to try something more difficult. Something like the mutants that you fought near the silo. If you can control them, then you will have a force to be reckoned with!
  
  You keep stretching your senses out and find shamblers in small groups or singly but not anything stronger than that. You assume the mutants must be further off road and you might have to go searching for them.
  
  > It's worth the time and effort, go searching for mutants
  Shamblers are not really fighters, those mutants you fought with however, those could fight.
  
  You head off the road to the West, that seemed to be the direction the others came from and you know the humans were being most careful out that way. By lunchtime though you have found nothing new. Just the usual scattered shamblers and no signs of anything else. It is possible that the two you fought were the only ones in this area "Maybe they are territorial like before they died and killed off other mutants? Guess I should actually learn more about the infected if I want to control them all" You think as you take a break for lunch and eat more meat strips.
  
  You decide that even if you want mutants, you may as well practice controlling some shamblers full time so reach out for the nearest ones. You stretch out your senses and invade the shamblers minds. It is so much easier than before and you take control of 8 of them, forcing them to follow you as you progress through the fields. 8 was a little tricky and after a few hours you find your headache growing and your nose starts bleeding again so you take a break, relaxing your hold on them while you snack on a piece of meat, wondering which human you ripped it off.
  
  It takes a couple of hours for the headache to begin subsiding and you set out again, by nightfall you are exhausted and the headache is throbbing with a vengeance. You relax your hold once more and climb into a ditch to sleep, you are in too rough a shape you look for anything else.
  
  You wake well after dawn, that means you slept right through the night again, you are going to have to be more careful from now on if you are going to be asleep for that long.
  
  You do however notice two things; Your headache is gone, and your shamblers have not moved an inch. You gently feel for them and it's almost as if you still have a small connection to their broken minds, you gently push a command for them to walk and they obey instantly "I see, so I must force my mind over them at the start but once I am in control I can relax and they still follow ymy commands!"
  
  Happy with the progress the sleep has given you, you set out again, once more having your shamblers following you from a distance, through the fields and ditches, but now you don't concentrate on them constantly, just gently send out commands and instantly feeling them respond to your will. You grin to yourself "This is going to be easy".
  
  You keep going in a haphazard fashion to the West until nightfall and find the second floor of a barn to use as a bed for the night.You think about the situation and realize that without you killing them off, that the scavenging team will be due back in a day or two at the most, and you wont beat that time back now so they will be suspicious either way.
  
  > keep searching for mutants, if they are going to be suspicious either way, you want good minions to fight them
  You keep heading West the next morning and finally spot a large grouping of buildings in the distance. Once you get closer you see that it must have been a large farming complex before the infection. Several houses are spread out, surrounded by barns and various buildings you assume had something to do with raising farm animals though your lack of knowledge regarding farming prevents you from working out exactly what that was.
  
  You start being more careful as you approach and sure enough you begin sensing something different than before. haziness in one of the barns that you do not recognize. "Jackpot, something other than humans and shamblers is here, it better not just be some Goram crazy though" You think as your edge closer and closer.
  
  Finally things resolve. there are two things in there that you cannot identify along with a shambler. This confuses you at first but shortly after the strange things move closer and the shambler's mind vanishes "And now at least they have eaten" You think as you finally judge yourself close enough to try and take them over.
  
  You reach out with your mind at one of them first and find it instantly. It's mid is definitely different from anything before, feral and pulsing with instinct but not the same emotions or remnants of intelligence as other minds you had sensed before. You force you will on it and find it fighting back. You can feel the headache starting and push harder as you feel it now trying to flee you attack, leaping around the barn. Finally though you force your control over it and it settles down as your slave. The other one has reacted too though and you realize it is headed your way. Once more you lash out, but this time completely confident of your ability to take it over and the confidence seems to matter and you take it over is seconds.
  
  You now control two mutants, and from their minds, they are two more large mutant cats "Must have been the farm's ratters" You think as you command them to finish eating the shambler in the barn before following you back East. Your headache is terrible and with the accompanying nose bleed you would rather they didn't have hunger on their minds when they were looking at your back.
  
  You have no need to worry though and the next morning they are behaving in the same way as the shamblers you control. docile and waiting your commands. You smile to yourself, this attack was going to be easy.
  
  It is not long after that you notice the faintest hint of smoke in the distance
  
  > Waiting for nightfall
  You look carefully as you approach. The walls are High, maybe 10 foot high and 12 with the railings, the spikes on the top were surely ornamental before but they have been sharpened now into points and you can see men with guns looking over the walls at various points. They are clearly the guards as they are holding guns however they are also clearly relaxed. they probably haven't had any real excitement since the raiders died out a few years back.
  
  It is not long before you have moved right around to the rear of the little community and see that the walls appear exactly the same the entire way around and that there are guards on every wall. You'll have to wait for nightfall. You spend the next few hours carefully maneuvering your shamblers in closer to the community and snacking on meat strips. "Almost out of meat, seems the more I eat humans, the more the hunger grows. Ah well, a feast is coming soon enough." You begin salivating at the though of eating all the humans in the community in front of you. Your senses tell you that there could be as many as 40 in there.
  
  You will have to improve you abilities to number humans at a distance but for now the numbers match your expectations and you settle in to wait.
  
  > Attacking in the moonlight
  You wait as midnight comes and goes and give the new guards on the walls a couple of hours to get comfortable and sleepy before you make your move. The moon is out in a beautiful crescent, looking every bit like a blade cutting down at the little community ahead of you. The light it provides is more than enough for you to see clearly but you know it isn't enough for the guards who have lit torches on the railings "They have lit themselves up like candles but the light will blind them to my approach!" You think to yourself gleefully as you move closer with the six shamblers near you.
  
  You are within a few metres of the first guard when you realize the problem. You can get over the wall easily but the shamblers will never make it. You hiss at yourself for being so stupid and take a few minutes to send them all round to the ditches near the front gate along with the mutants. You will have to open it to get them inside to fight for you.
  
  You move to a dark spot between the torches and leave your bat and pack against the wall before jumping up incase they banged against somthing and gave you away. You reach the railings easily and swing yourself over in one smooth movement, landing quietly on a wooden platform behind the walls "Smart, they built a little walkway all the way around for their guards" You think as you sneak back towards the guard you were near before. He had seemed extra sleepy earlier, and sure enough, you find him napping.
  
  Two steps into the light from the small torch and you have and hand clamped over his mouth and the other around his throat, crushing his windpipe. It gives way with a pop and you finish him off by snapping his neck. The hunger surges up but you have to ignore it for now. You can feast once you have control of the entire compound.
  
  You start sneaking along the walkway toward the next guard and once more find a sleepy man, relaxing in his chair in the torchlight, you smile to yourself, they had become too lax in the peaceful times after the raiders all died. You once more move in close and before the man even wakes up enough to react you have you hand over his mouth and throat. You clamp down, crushing his windpipe but as you feel it give way, you hear the thump of his heel hitting his chair. You quickly snap his neck but the damage is done and the chair tumbles off the edge and into the compound before you can stop it.
  
  You swear to yourself and you hear the noise it makes but you know it wasn't really that loud, You almost think you got away with it when you hear the next guard calling out "Hey Kiel, you fall asleep again!" You quickly drop to the ground, the guard wont take long to get suspicious when their friend does not reply so you need to get the gates open fast.
  
  You sprint between the houses, luckily finding most quiet and dark and come to the main gate. there are two guards here, one either side of the gateway and they are awake and chatting to each other. But you hear the shout going up. The guard has found the body. "Kiel is dead! we have intruders! help!" You swear and rush towards the gate, leaping up and vaulting yourself onto the walkway behind one of the guards. He saw you coming and tries to raise his gun but you are faster and a punch to the throat sends him stumbling over the wall, only to get impaled on a spike before he can fully fall. the haze of his mind already gone by the time he hits the spike. You run and leap at the second guard, but this one has had more time and you see her with rifle ready. She takes the shot as you leap and you feel the impact in your side. You are certain she just got you cleanly in the kidney as you land and start punching her, not giving her time to work the bolt action for another shot.
  
  She shot you though and the hunger fills your mind with anger as you punch her repeatedly in revenge, even though she was dead after the second hit. The shouts of humans running brings you back from your rage and you can sense the minds of several humans headed your way. You leap down and wrench the wooden bar off the gate, swinging it open.
  
  "Time for vengeance!" you think as you order your horde inside and lean up against the wall for a moment to stop your own bleeding. You will easily survive this, but it is still not trivial, you will need a few moments to bind it before you move.
  
  You simply order your horde to attack while you tear a strip off your shirt to stuff into your wound when you hear the shots starting and feel your horde reduce in number quickly. You look up to see the humans aren't all carrying bold action hunting rifles or pistols, several have assault rifles and they are tearing your shambler horde apart with ease, the mutants are doing damage in return though and each has already downed a human.
  
  > Your wound has to wait, support your horde before it is too late
  "Gorram automatic weapons!" you say as you drop you attempts to stop your own bleeding and charge the men shooting at the shamblers.You quickly pass the slow cannon fodder as see that two of those still standing have assault rifles and need to be taken down fast, your mutants have also easily killed a man each but they are stopping to feed and at risk themselves because of it. You quickly send to order to attack humans relentlessly, only feeding once they are all dead and leap at the closest human.
  
  You clearly take him by surprise with your speed, bullets pass you by but luckily none hit as you plow right into the man knee first, feeling his ribs crack and sending him flying backwards. You can sense that he is still alive but you doubt that he will be moving any time soon. You spin and land a heavy punch on the next man, knocking him out cold before he can even get an aim at you. You feel two more human minds vanish behind you and glancing back you see the mutants mauling two more before moving on "No more automatic weapons now" You think as you shove the last man standing towards the shamblers as be desperately tries to reload his rifle.
  
  Then you feel one on the mutants flash in pain then vanish. looking over you instantly see it on the ground, bullet wound to the head. You search for the cause and see two of the wall guards, one still aiming down her gun at your dead mutant. You snarl, they were going to pay for that. The second guard grabs the woman "Briar, you killed it, now let's go!" and the both start running along the platform to the rear of the compound.
  
  You give chase and know you can cut them off if you run through the buildings quickly enough. You start dodging through, hearing gunfire still happening and know that other humans had finished off the last of the shamblers at the gate, but your second mutant and 3 shamblers were already loose between the buildings, hunting for humans.
  
  You rush out the side to see the two you are chasing jumping down and running for what looks like a bunker hatch where other humans are already gathering.
  
  > chase them down, then slaughter the others as well, they killed your new pet
  You Rush after them "They die for killing my pet!" You snarl in your mind as you rush towards them, covering the ground inhumanly fast. You quickly catch the man and backhand him aside then lunge after the one he called 'Briar' she was the one who shot your pet. You even imagine how good your revenge will feel as you snuff her life out.
  
  Sadly though you never consider that when you move with inhuman speed in front of humans with guns currently fighting infected that they will assume you are indeed inhuman.
  
  The first bullet misses but the second catches you cleanly in the side of your chest right before you reach Briar and it knocks you off your stride. You stumble to your knee, feeling the internal bleeding start, you've been shot twice now and you are definitely reaching your limit even with your regenerative capabilities.
  
  You sense a movement and looking up you see Briar turn to you and raise her gun "You killed claw!" She says as she is about to fire, but she killed your pet and is standing close to you. You lunge upwards as she fires, her bullet tearing through your chest but you have momentum and manage to punch her in the throat before you collapse.
  
  You can feel the blood draining from you now and know you wont get up again but you are also looking right at Briars face. You both know you killed the other as you see her choke to death and she watches you bleed out.