text: [Themes: horror, post-apocalyptic, horror]
  
  No Point in lying about it now.
  
  You call up to them carefully, preparing to run if needed.
  
  "Firstly I've had the vaccine and had bites before with no affect. It's a bite wound, from a fast bugger back in the alleyways. I'm not hiding anything!"
  
  You see one of the men react and take aim at you, you're about to dodge when the one who is clearly in charge swats his gun to the side and the shot misses you by a few feet. "Put that gun down you idiot, what the hell you think you're doing?" he shouts
  
  "He's been bit! He admitted it!" the man replies clearly panicked.
  
  "And he has no symptoms, he also has been bitten before and no reaction so obviously the vaccine works for him. Are you mentally challenged or something?"
  
  He turns back to you. "Sorry about that, he's just a little panicky at the moment even if he knows full well the vaccine protects some people from all exposure, even bites. We are letting you in, but be warned; you're being quarantined until we can be sure."
  
  You collect your things and head inside. "So the vaccine protects some people from bites as well as the airborne strain but others get infected by it regardless. Good to know." You think as you head inside and find more guns pointed your way.
  
  "Seems your skin is the right color, you can still bleed and still talk but you've been bitten. It's a few days in our quarantine for you my friend." One of them says to you.
  
  You quickly find yourself in a locked room in some basement area where you stay undisturbed until you judge its night time, a lamp on the outside wall giving some light through the door's window. A soldier finally arrives to take a look at the wound. "Don't worry mate, I'm a military doctor so I'm just here to take a look at that bite of yours." He says as you let him take the bandage off and put a fresh proper one on it. "There, got it wrapped up properly now, I thought you said you just got it in the alleyway, it looks at least a couple of days of healing there?"
  
  You think quickly. "Oh I got it in the alleys, just not today, I've been clambering around in there for days now, I had no idea anyone was left here so I've been slowly making my way as I scavenge."
  
  You watch his face and it seems he buys it. "Yeh, after the collapse almost everyone died or fled. Some of us are back now and making a new start. Well back in a day or two to make sure you haven't gone crazy on us or anything. Longest I ever heard before a man turned was 3 days, and he just became a crazy so if you're still you when you see me next I'll get you outa here."
  
  You're left a tray of food as the door is once more locked. And a few more hours pass with no noise outside the door.
  
  > wait it out. What's a couple of days in solitary when you've spent years doing it?
  You feel hungry, far more hungry than normal and eating the lukewarm rations provided for you doesn't hurt at all, but you've decided to wait it out. If you had your pack it wouldn't be so bad since you had a few meat strips left in there but your bat and bag are gone for now.
  
  You curl up on the cot and spend the entire night trying to ignore your hunger.
  
  As it turns morning you hear someone approaching and a tray of food is left inside the door for you. You didn't sleep well however once you eat the rations and rest again for a bit the hunger isn't as bad. Lunch and dinner pass with more food provided. It doesn't seem to agree with you at all, and you're not surprised by that, however the hunger has passed and you spend the third night mostly sleeping pretty well all things considered.
  
  You aren't surprised the next day when the army medic returns and leaves the door open behind him. "Quick test then your free to join the rest of what is left of society!"
  
  You are finally directed up into an atrium where you find four guards waiting for you. The medic disappears into a side room and the four take charge of leading you around.
  
  > Inside the stadium doors
  The four lead you to a room where you're made to hand over your things and strip to your underwear while two of them check you for marks and prick your arms, causing you to bleed a little. Finally after discussion they let you get dressed and welcome you to the area.
  
  "Sorry about all the security but after what happened before, we can't be too careful." They tell you as you emerge into the center of the stadium. "The roof came down with the wall but as you can see it held mostly intact and covered over two thirds of the space down here." You look up and see the roof lying on the lowest level of the seats, leaving plenty of room underneath for a small community, a few holes near the top letting the light in. "It also blocked off all but two of the tunnels with rubble so it kind of fixed the defense issue for us too."
  
  "How many of you are here now?" you ask looking at the small group.
  
  "Only about 40 for now, we are hoping for more to arrive slowly as we have been getting the word out that it's a safe zone now. Sorry again about all the checks but we have to be extra careful now of who we let in."
  
  "You mentioned that before, I thought it was some survivor that got infected that caused everything?" you reply while thinking to yourself 'Might as well get what information I can while they are still talking and the higher ups haven't come sniffin to make life difficult.'
  
  "That's what we thought but some of the military guys saw more of what was happening than most of us, said that the infected outside had moved in close overnight and the ones inside behaved weirdly. Didn't attack and eat like normal, they went on biting sprees, like spreading fresh infection was their goal. Like they were organized. We think they were led by a harbinger! So now we check everyone for bite marks, greying skin or lack of bleeding from small cuts to make sure they aren't one!"
  
  "You idiots, those are just myths" you think to yourself "Harbingers looks nearly identical to normal humans, well I guess I won't be the one to tell you the truth at least."
  
  You finally see a man in full dress uniform approach
  
  "Here we go" you mutter under your breath.
  
  The man approaches you and is, to your surprise, very congenial. He welcomes you to their little hold out and asks only a few cursory questions before excusing himself to go and check on the other lookouts. He does make you affirm that if you would like to stay you would be willing to help out with defense if needed.
  
  "Well that wasn't so bad." You mutter just loud enough for your guards to hear.
  
  One laughs and responds. "A nice guy in charge? Yeh, rare enough I suppose, but people wouldn't still follow the Capt. if he was an ass would they! Come on we will show you around."
  
  You follow them around the accessible areas under the roof and see the paths up to the balcony where the men were on guard, you also notice that there are higher balconies with men in soldier's uniforms on them. "Probably good I didn't run" you think to yourself as you see the tents and shacks set up for sleeping and the tunnels used for storage.
  
  "Well that's pretty much it." One of the men says, looking around him. "Obviously there used to be a lot more here before the collapse but this is just the start. Once word spreads and more survivors gather we can tidy the place up more."
  
  You think for a moment before speaking again. "Isn't there some big group to the East of the city doing well, I heard a rumor about it some months back."
  
  The guard smiles knowingly before responding. "It's true! We had contact with them some time back via a series of radios we were setting up in the city. This was right before the collapse O'course. Seems that they got a really good thing going out there, clean food and water, even fields and solar panels up for power! Sadly when the roof came down, it took out our good radio equipment and most of the relays in the city are unreachable now without the manpower we used to have. We might not have enough men here to push through but we think if we hold out here and gather a good community then we can scout a safe route through the North of the city to the river and cross there. For now we are going to be the western safe zone for people unable to pass the city. You wouldn't believe the monsters we used to kill in there when we had out jeeps and heavy guns. Most people that try and get through the city to the bridges die trying or turn back having lost their friends, some tried to circle up North or South well past the city limits but seems that there are infected and mutants out there too and no way to safely cross the river unless you carry a boat."
  
  He trails off and you can see he is thinking of past friends, he was probably one of the ones who tried to get through and failed.
  
  "Well I better go get my stuff back and find a place to rest." You state. The guards give you a nod and let you wander back to the entrance tunnel to collect your gear. You get pointed to your new temporary home, a small tent on the old pitch. Considering you half expected to get killed as soon as you saw the men with the guns this day has really turned out in your favor!
  
  > Your new home at the stadium
  You make some more small talk that evening then retire to your tent, you had learned something new and important today. They all seemed to strongly believe a Herald had somehow led and controlled the infected, even the ones inside the stadium. Some blamed him for planning the entire thing and that the infected had attacked the strut when it fell. Hard to believe but after seeing what the infection was able to do to some animals you were willing to give the idea a chance. That also meant that even if they had no idea what Heralds were really like, there must have been one in the area only a year or so ago and still might be. You were going to have to be extra careful with your planning for now.
  
  The second important thing was that they had a few shamblers trapped down in some old storage rooms, they experimented on them for good ways to hurt them and how long they lasted without food.
  
  You have choices to make in the morning.
  
  > First light in the stadium
  A quiet ringing wakes you at first light. "Huh a near silent alarm, smatter than a loud one I guess." You say to yourself as you get ready. You glance through your bag. They had left your last few strips of dried meat in there so you start chowing down on one as you head out. They said you had a few days to decide what you'd be doing but if you chose to stay more than that, then you would have to be useful to them in some way, guard duty and scavenging seemed to be the implied option. You had some time though.
  
  > check out the caged shamblers
  They are keeping shamblers fully contained for experiments, with everything you've heard recently it's just too tempting to pass up a little look at what's going on. You know the rough location and after finding the stairs down, you emerge into a basement area with several doors leading off it. You also find two guards who ask what you're looking for.
  
  "I heard there were some shamblers in cages being tested here and wanted to have a look. Its not often you get to see they relatively close without having to run away after all." You joke.
  
  Luckily neither of them seems to think this is too out of the ordinary. "Yeh most new guys end up down here once they hear about it. Go on through and the doc can show you what's up. Door gets locked behind you though, safety first." He adds with a wink.
  
  You get let through a heavy door into a side corridor and indeed you hear the sound of a reassuringly large bolt being secured behind you. At the end of the corridor you see an open door with the lights on so head there first, passing two doors on either side with heavy bolts on them. You find a man in military uniform at a desk, writing in a book. He looks up at your arrival.
  
  "Ah the newest new guy! I wondered if you'd find your way down here. Most of them do once they hear about our test subjects. Let me show you around!"
  
  At first you are a little taken aback by his willingness to show you everything having only just met you but after a few minutes it becomes clear that he isn't divulging important secrets, he's an army medic acting as the stadiums doctor and their tests amount to two shamblers being starved slowly to death on one side of the corridor and two having weapons tested on them through slots in the door on the other. One still has a crossbow bolt in its upper leg, giving it a limp.
  
  "That's about it sadly." He sums up for you. "We had string tied to the bolts to get them back easily but that one caught on the bone so the string snapped. We did find out that destroying their joints and muscles is effective in slowing them down and they will die from large trauma, not just neural damage. So shooting knees and legs will stop them chasing you faster than a snail and body shots can kill them despite what anyone else says. We proved it with a fast bugger we found down here. 2 shots in the chest and he went down. Sure they can keep going with far more damage than a normal human but most things still work on them eventually."
  
  You nod along, filling the information at the back of your mind for later, it matches up with your findings as well.
  
  "I'm guessing the closer to human they are, the easier they go down then? The crazies seem to be just like humans, the fast ones a little tougher and the shamblers just soak up damage if it's not the head."
  
  The man smiles and nods. "A man of experience. I assume the vaccine gave you full protection if you were able to test all of that out. You are right of course, the further from human they go, the tougher they get, taking more normal damage to kill them. Destroying the neural center is always effective though, headshots I mean. It's easier if you don't think of them as human."
  
  He peeks through the windows a few more times before heading back to his office. "You're welcome to stay and test things out on number 4, just never remove a lock no matter how dead they look."
  
  The doors have large numbers on them so number 4 turns out to be the one with a crossbow bolt in its leg.
  
  "So it seems you are the expendable one." You say quietly through the small slot. "You'll be seeing more of me soon."
  
  You head back up into the light to make up an excuse for being there so much and decide on something basic, you head off in search of materials in the rubble.
  
  > Testing time
  You exchange pleasantries with a few of the others in the stadium while you search and give the impression that you will probably choose to stay but just need a day or two to decide. A few even give you a hand in your search and after a couple of hours you have some forked metal the right size and shape and industrial elastic cable housing to make a high powered slingshot.
  
  You grab various possible projectiles from pebbles to bits of jagged metal and head back down to speak to the doc. You explain that you've always wanted to test how shamblers react to projectile damage as a way of killing them quietly. He has no issues but tells you that you'll have to write down your findings. You get a small notebook with columns to fill out for weapon name and type, type of damage, effect on the shambler, tissue types... the list goes on but you know it'll be fairly easy to fill out once you shoot them a few times. You glance a few pages back to see what else has been tried.
  
  "Huh, a flamethrower." You say out loud.
  
  The Doc. Overhears from his office and calls out. "Highly effective, turned it into a walking torch and killed it in seconds, made a huge mess and bad smell though. Sadly ran out of fuel."
  
  You shrug and get to work. You leave the slot on door number four and lean up against the opposite wall. You wait for it to wander into view and let fire with a small rock. Your slingshot is extremely powerful, to the point that a average male couldn't even draw it properly but with your strength you can get it back a fair distance. The pebble hits at speed and pierces the skin of its abdomen. You note down your findings and tries out a few different projectiles. The small jagged metal pieces beaten into roughly a ball shape seem to win for the moment, you manage to shatter its clavicle with one and break its wrist with another.
  
  The doctor makes an appearance and glances through your notes. "Excellent, I can add all this to the data later on." He says as much to himself as to you as he heads off out on some errand.
  
  Once he is gone you move closer to the door and pretend to be writing in the book just in case anyone is watching you.
  
  "So number 4, if you had any brain left you'd know by now that in our relationship, I am in charge, I can hurt you at will and you can do nothing, but you don't really have a brain left do you?" You receive the silence that you expected so carry on.
  
  "I'll be here a lot 'testing' weapons and other things on you but I have bigger plans for you and your brothers if some rumors I have been hearing work out."
  
  You take your time there, concentrating, until you've used up all your makeshift ammo, you write a few more notes for the doc. Then head back up for lunch.
  
  > The testing continues
  Over the next two days you spend a lot of you time down 'testing' out various things on number 4, since you obviously had no qualms hurting the shamblers the doc and a couple of others even gave you their ideas to use on it which you did happily as it gave you more excuses to be down there.
  
  You also had your chat with the Capt. and said you'd be wanting to stay and would obviously help out with guard duty and scavenging if needed but hoped you could keep helping the doc too. He agreed and gave you half time guard duty and half time being the doc's new assistant for the coming week to see how it worked out.
  
  You use the arrangement to your advantage and get to spend most of your evenings down with the shamblers.
  
  It's 5 days before you make a break through, not a big one, but you defiantly notice something. You've been testing various weapons and objects on Number 4, as you call him, every day while concentrating hard and you were even beginning to doubt anything would happen when you hit him in there eye with a rusty bolt and you feel a slight twinge in your mind.
  
  You spend the next hour trying to concentrate on where and how you felt that twinge and when you fire the next bolt into its chest, you feel it again, a little clearer. The rest of the evening and a little into the night is spent this way until you are certain you can feel the shamblers presence with your mind and can tell when it feels pain.
  
  "So, the rumors are true, harbingers ARE able to use their minds in ways normal humans can't. Next I work on controlling them." You think as you head to sleep
  
  > Morning revelations
  You wake in the morning and realize that you can already feel the presence of the shamblers in the basement below without having to concentrate on it. You also get a hazy feeling throughout the stadium that you can't pin down yet. You quickly eat breakfast with the other guards and head up to your post while eating your last meat strip. "The last of that crazy I killed a while back" You think as you set up on your balcony. Luckily you are alone today on a not very important post so you can relax and concentrate on the new sensations you mind is feeding you. After a few hours you find the haziness resolve into pockets that move about and decide that it must be linked to the normal people in the stadium. You can't get anything stronger from the shamblers yet but if you made this much progress just by sleeping on it, who knows what I can do in a few more days.
  
  That evening you take a long pole with a spike on the end down, it will give you a good excuse to be close to the door for long periods of time while you pretend to stab at number 4.
  
  Once you are seated and staring at him the sensations gets strong and you can easily tell when it feels pain from being stabbed. "Huh, you don't outwardly respond but the pains still there, interesting."
  
  Two more days pass of these mornings concentrating and evenings testing and by the end you can tell what is happening to number 4 or any of the other 3 shamblers even from up in the stadium. While you were eating lunch, you felt that number 4 got stabbed in the left shoulder, and sure enough when you went down, there was the doc writing down that stabbing it through the shoulder join restricted its movement in that arm.
  
  "I'm testing if it recovers from its injuries now so please avoid its shoulder and arm for now if you test more." He says as he passes you the book and heads up to eat.
  
  It's now been several days since you arrived and you ran out of human flesh days ago. The food they give you doesn't sit well or seem to quench your hunger but the progress you are making is distracting you enough that you can ignore it for now. You are even getting on well with several of the others in the stadium which gives you doubts for the first time about your original plans to kill them all and feed off them. You could probably volunteer for a scavenging mission to try and get some food out there but you'd probably only manage to get hold of some shambler flesh and it was simply not the same as normal flesh. Seemed just like the toughness, the further from human they got, the less useful their flesh was.
  
  But for now you move onto the next stage, time to make the puppet dance for you.
  
  You concentrate hard of the feeling you get from what you presume is the remains of the shamblers mind and try to make it lift its right arm into the air with little success, however, over the next few hours you see the arm twitch and eventually it responds and you see it lifting its arm up over its head.
  
  You lean back against the opposite wall feeling elated by your success when the doc returns.
  
  "Hey! You've got the mother of all nose bleeds there! Let me grab some gauze." He heads into his office and returns quickly while you dab at your own nose, seems you were concentrating so hard you didn't even feel it happening. You do however now feel fairly light headed so after being cleaned up and making your excuses you head up to lie down in your tent and very unusually fall asleep for the whole evening and night.
  
  The morning brings the final revelation and the decisions. You wake to a solid feeling of not only where the four shamblers are, but roughly what they are doing. Concentrating easily makes number 4 turn in a circle and only a little more effort is required to make the others do the same. A slight tingling at the reaches of your mind tells you that you can sense other infected out in the alleys near the stadium.
  
  "Time to make a choice. This mind stuff seems like a muscle, the more I use it, the stronger I get. Sleeping after a breakthrough only seems to reinforce it too. In days I'm certain I'll be able to control small groups of the shamblers at the same time so I'll have to start testing on the other types next. Can't get anything from the normals other than a hazy feeling though."
  
  You're a Harbinger and you've eaten people for years, time to flex those powers, use the shamblers to help you wipe the stadium survivors out.
  
  You are a harbinger, but you aren't sure you want to attack these people right now. Stay playing nice as you are while you train your powers, maybe get out on some scavenges to test yourself further.
  
  > You're a Harbinger and you've eaten people for years, time to flex those powers, use the shamblers to help you wipe the stadium survivors out.
  Time to make your move, you are inside with four shamblers you can control and it's time to feast!
  
  You wait until after breakfast when everyone splits up and head down to see the Doc, you find him leaning over some books in his office like normal so you head right inside and shut the door behind you.
  
  "What can I help you with." He asks, giving you a quick smile before turning back to his books. You look round and see one of the blades that had been used to experiment on number 4. You lift it and walk carefully up behind the doc as you talk.
  
  "I have just a minor problem I need solved, I've been feeling very hungry lately and the rations here don't really solve it.
  
  He starts to turn to answer you when you strike and stab him in the throat, preventing him from shouting out, you watch him die with only the faintest hint of remorse before you feel that last flicker of humanity disappear once more and you feast on him for a few minutes. You quickly clean the blood off yourself and head back out, tapping on the door to be let through to the security area.
  
  Only two guards and you are a lot faster than a normal human. You strike quickly, catching one in the throat and stabbing the other in the chest, clamping your free hand over his mouth before he can shout for help. You quickly drag them into the corridor before releasing the four shamblers who were to be the start of your little army, you concentrate hard but find it is easy to prevent them from attacking you and they quickly obey your compulsions to feed on the dead guards.
  
  Finally prepared, you head back out the door and to the base of the stairs, you can feel something fuzzy headed your way so you hide the shamblers round the corner and lean against the wall, trying to seem carefree as you see another guard heading down towards you. You give him a smile and a nod which he begins to return before looking at your trousers and pausing several steps away.
  
  You glance down and realize that one trouser leg has a lot of blood on it, must have been from dragging the guards. You look back up and start to go for the guard but he is already raising his gun, you bat it aside and stab him had enough in the chest to feel multiple ribs crack under your fist however his gun goes off with a loud crack.
  
  You swear and immediately head up the stairs with your shamblers only to find several other guards running your way, you try to charge them but being seem with blood on you and in the company of the four shamblers means they start firing first.
  
  Even with your speed you don't make it more than a few feet before the bullets bring you down.