text: I shook my head, if he wanted to go hunt after the old man, that was his prerogative. Instead we watched as he went, Itaki's oldest friend, out into the night like a madman to find him. Even Aubrey stayed behind, realizing the futility of it. As he wrenched open the metal door to the outside, the guards begged him not to leave, but he wasted no time disappearing from view. The door slammed shut, and our group huddled tighter still, as two of our number awaited an unknown fate in the town of Miyazaki.
  
  The hours that passed before sunrise were tense with the idea of regret. I considered fleeing into the night several times, however, Dr. Blythe's steady hand on my shoulder grounded me to reality. When the first rays of the new morning pierced the ceiling of the warehouse, we were out in the rubble, searching and yelling. Neither Itaki or Ogasawara could be found, neither at the ship, or around the warehouse. Even Ogasawara's footsteps, which seemed to lead towards the ship, completely disappeared about halfway there. I hardly spent any time taking photos, fully invested in searching for our team. It wasn't until midday that we returned to the shelter, defeated.
  
  The way I saw it, there were only a few possibilities. Either Itaki had really left on his own, the crew had done something to him, or these new scavengers had grabbed him. Dr. Blythe seemed to be in agreement.
  
  "The only thing that keeps me thinking is how someone could've possibly moved Itaki without anyone noticing. Honestly, I think he left on his own." he concluded.
  
  I wasn't quite as sure as he was, but he made a good point. My primary suspect was the new scavengers, who'd we just met the day before. They could move rather stealthily from what I had seen, but they had no motivation.
  
  "Occam's razor?" came Qara's voice from behind, "I don't see a whole lot wrong with the explanation we were given. Itaki's desperate to get home."
  
  "That still doesn't explain Ogasawara's footprints fading off randomly." I added.
  
  "You saw how windy it was last night, good chance something just wiped them away. After going back to the boat, he probably just headed north after Itaki."
  
  I felt a mounting pressure, as the prospect of someone else disappearing the next night began to wear on my mind. What would I do if Dr. Blythe disappeared next? Was I just being paranoid? I slumped against the wall, exhausted, the fatigue in my muscles finally setting in from our entire journey. I could question the scavengers, but who knows how they'd react at such an accusation, especially after already explaining themselves; I'd come off as a crazy person. On the flip side, I couldn't imagine the crew kidnapping Itaki, for any reason, except maybe as revenge for Captain Li Qiang.
  
  > Question Bo
  I figured if anyone was going to talk from the crew, it would be Bo. He was chilling with everyone else, sitting around a makeshift table made up of a few packs and a large plywood slab, playing cards.
  
  I slyly tapped his shoulder, and he excused himself from his game, meeting me behind one of the makeshift rooms for a private conversation.
  
  "Hey, Bo. You know about Itaki and Ogasawara's disappearances by now right?" He nodded his head slowly. "Look I hate to ask this, but your guys didn't happen to have anything to do with it, did they?" He gave me an annoyed look, then spoke in his surprisingly good English dialect.
  
  "Mr. Sutton, I understand you're upset, but none of us would do such a thing. We make money off of a good reputation. Even our angry crew understand this."
  
  "Well do any of you have an idea of what happened?" He chuckled a little, forming dimples on his boyish face.
  
  "No, when the Jai Li crew sleeps, not even a tsunami could wake us. I'm sorry, if I'd known I would have kept watch."
  
  "It's alright, Bo. I believe you. Just be careful." He nodded again, this time more determined. I did believe Bo, but I wasn't sure I gave everyone else from his crew the same credit.
  
  The night seemed to settle into the nooks of Miyazaki quickly, and the scavengers shooed everyone inside, warning of wild dogs and bears that lurked among the deserted streets. I hadn't considered it, but perhaps Itaki was mauled by a beast and brought to its lair. The scavengers seemed fairly scared of the prospect of being out at night. I dismissed it quickly; surely a beast like that would've left some blood and tracks behind.
  
  Bo sat peacefully against the far corner of the room, twiddling his thumbs idly. He caught my eye and winked at me: he was planning to keep watch after all. It was a nice weight off my shoulders as I crouched next to my bag, trying to sleep against the metal walls. It proved too troublesome, and soon I was laying on the smooth stone floor, hoping and hoping I'd find more sleep tonight.
  
  —————
  
  A creak and a shuffle. Whispers. Things that would've normally woken me up. Should have woken me up.
  
  I sat straight up in the darkness, but there was hardly anything to see, and nobody to speak to. There was a new man, however, a scavenger sleeping next to me, slumped uncomfortably against a sharp street sign jutting from the wall. Before I could even question why he was there, he sprung forward, wrapping a glove covered hand around my nose and mouth, and another arm around my neck. I tried to kick, but someone else sat on my feet, and a needle was injected into my forearm. One moment I was there, and the next, everything went black.
  
  > Continue
  "James! Are you alright? Come back to me!"
  
  It hurt to wrench my eyes open, I was having such a good dream. The sun penetrated my eyelids slightly, leaving a soft orange glow that I had no choice but to see. I was very, very tired, and just wanted to go back to sleep.
  
  "Get up James! We don't have forever! They're going to catch up!" Some grabbed both of my shoulders and began shaking. My eyes flew open, and my hands wrapped around their throat, squeezing mercilessly. When I finally got adjusted to the light, I realized the person I was choking was Bo. He was struggling to get my hands off his throat, choking and gasping for air. I let him go immediately, feeling a bit bad about it. Glancing around, I realized we were in the middle of Miyazaki, surrounded by the towering rubble.
  
  "I'm sorry about that Bo, the last thing I remember was getting captured by... the scavengers?" He grimaced.
  
  "Yeah, it was them. I was just barely able to find you and pull you out of the shelter before... James, they absolutely exterminated everyone. It was a vicious ambush. But we can't stop now, I'm confident they saw us leave. We need to---".
  
  A gunshot echoed around the rubble, and Bo's head erupted like a balloon, showering my body with blood and brain remnants. His body wobbled for a second, and then collapsed in a heap of rebar and small stones. For a moment, nothing happened. And then I screamed. Two more gunshots sounded off, coming from my right, and I hardly hesitated in turning that way, eager to end either their lives, or my own, whatever came first. The masked lone scavenger stood atop an outcrop on a nearby partially destroyed building, and I made a beeline towards him. He fired again, twice. The first bullet whizzed by me harmlessly, but the second flew through my shoulder. I felt nothing.
  
  I practically launched up the side of the building, grabbing stone after stone to hoist myself up, and the scavenger stumbled back, surprised.
  
  "You're going to pay for that one, motherfucker." I knocked his gun out of his hands, sending it flying into a nearby wall and laid a hand on his mask, tearing it off and throwing it off the side of the building. It revealed the face of a young Eastern European man, his face frozen in fear as my fingers hovered menacingly over his eyes. He struggled and I could sense his desperation, hands fumbling uselessly for his belt, where his machete sat.
  
  My urge to plunge my fingers in his eyes and rip them out was palpable, but something stayed my hand. I'd sworn never to become an agent of violence, years ago, when I'd joined the newspaper. Could it be that a man's resolve to his beliefs was this malleable? I'd been angry ever since I'd seen Captain Li Qiang die to those pirates. Some men deserved to be avenged.
  
  > kill the Scavenger
  I dug my fingers into his eyes, ripping them out by the ocular nerves and casting them against the stones, where they settled with a wet 'plop'. He screamed in pain and I released him, stumbling around blindly, scratching at his empty eye sockets with frantic hands. I let him suffer in the darkness for a moment, before deciding he'd had enough, giving him a kick off the building. His head bounced off the stones below, and he laid there, unmoving.
  
  I stepped back, admiring my handiwork. Somehow that seemed, right.
  
  Standing alone in the desolate town of Miyazaki, I realized I really had nothing to lose, and so I began walking back to the shelter to finish what I had started. It took no time at all, I flew over the landscape at a breakneck speed, injuries not slowing me down. There was a small band of scavengers wandering the wasteland to the left, so I made a quick detour. I was on them before they could even raise their guns, taking the first one out by pushing his jaw straight back while holding the back of his neck, snapping his spine like a bent straw. He collapsed immediately, and I moved to the next man, who'd raised his gun at me, a look of fierce determination in his eyes. I grabbed the barrel of his gun, shoving it under his chin and pressing his own finger against the trigger.
  
  The gun fired, but I didn't stop to watch. I seamlessly moved to the next scavenger, fingers and arms flying and tearing limbs like I was born for combat. It didn't feel good, but it did feel justified. They fell like dominos, lifeless bodies scattered amongst the dirt. I began running again, towards the shelter, which now seemed closer than before.
  
  I never did reach the shelter.
  
  More groups of scavengers cropped up along the way: crowds of four or five, slow, easy to eviscerate prey. Engaged in brutal combat, I fought for days and nights across the irradiated land, until time no longer meant anything to me. I was an agent of war, and I would eventually avenge my fallen brothers and sisters.
  
  A sharp smile broke on the face of Archbishop Daniels. He'd bred the ultimate killing machine with just the tools and resources provided to him from the most desolate environment in human history. God truly provided all the means he required. It was no mere luck that had steered those Americans to his shores. No, someone had made that choice, the Almighty had made that choice.
  
  The power of the forsaken land had been harnessed in his fist for the first time, and he was prepared to unleash its wrath upon Korea, and more ambitiously perhaps, the world. Time, and the amount of suitable bodies, would be the decider. He continued to smile, for he was confident in who was making the decisions.