text: [Themes: horror, post-apocalyptic]
  
  The next few days pass in much the same way, you practice trying to control the shambler until you get a headache and nosebleed, then wait and rest until it passes. Sleep seems to help the most and you often wake up having progressed by a large leap from the day before.
  
  By the end of your practicing you can make the shambler react to your commands and you are pretty sure you can sense what is happening to it too, like where it is injured. You need to test further and see if you can control others as well or if you are limited to having to learn each new infected like you did with this one.
  
  Once you are pretty sure you could make it move the way you wanted if it wasn't completely trapped in place, you decide that it is time to move on and further your training with more testing.
  
  It's a few hours after setting out that you see something below you and realize that a shambler must be on the road below the highway. You reach out for it and feel its mind there like you did with the trapped one but you immediately feel your nosebleed coming on again and stop pushing it. It seems that you will need to take things slowly
  
  That night you find a rest stop and actually manage to camp inside a building. Your hunger is back but the last remains of the survivor you killed keep you sated for now "going to have to find some more food soon" you think to yourself.
  
  > Heading North to train before you make for the Colony
  You need time and safety to train your new talents, wandering recklessly East while still developing is probably too dangerous as you don't know what is lurking between you and the colony. Heading South would just take you right into the city center and that would be a death wish without better abilities so North is your final option.
  
  You know there used to be small communities in the outlying areas, hamlets and villages that served the farming communities, retirement homes and even some affluent areas for those who no longer wanted to live in the big city. If you look around enough you are sure you will find a nice enough building to make a temporary base, food might be scarce but you can always subside on the infected for a few weeks.
  
  You walk until the next off-ramp leading to a North-bound road and wander down. Looking around you see most of the buildings reduced to rubble, the military must have hit this area harder than others during the defense. "Maybe this was one of the areas they tried to make a stand and bombed the hordes of infected that attacked them" You think to yourself as you walk, but it is unlikely that you'll ever find out for sure.
  
  There are not too many infected in this direction but you know if you find a small community that you should find some there to practice on, they never wander too far from where they turned after-all.
  
  By night-time you have left the outskirts of the city behind and begin to see open areas of land a fields, some overgrown with crops of varying types, untended for years, the old clearly defined lines haven given away to a mish-mash of crops invading others fields while weeds and thorns try to choke them all out.
  
  By nightfall you are looking for a likely place to rest and see a few options, in the distance you can make out what looks like a small grain silo, it would take a couple of hours to reach but they usually are made of metal, have small ladders right up to the top where you'd be nice and safe from everything, There is also an old broken down farmhouse nearby and a Barn on the same land. The House was clearly ransacked long ago, the doors are missing, windows smashed and everything looted out of it. The barn seems in better shape, the doors wide open but still intact at least.
  
  > head onto the Grain Silo, solid metal construction is more trustworthy
  You head resolutely toward the grain silo, if you were going to find a safe resting spot it would be there. You can see scattered houses in the distance but they will most likely be like the one you passed, ransacked and useless. THe grain silo however is a huge solid metal cylinder with a walkway spiraling up the outside which leads to the metal hatch on top to get inside. Even if the grain levels are too low inside it, there is often a small internal platform or walkway below the hatch you could rest on for the night.
  
  As you get closer the dusk ends and the night fully sets in, you count your blessings that you have good night vision as avoiding an infected attack now would be very difficult. You stomach keeps rumbling on you, reminding you of how long it has been since you ate. The old hunger has kept getting stronger recently and you know you will need to eat something very soon.
  
  And luckily you see prey.
  
  A woman is running out of the fields, right towards the same silo as you! You are normally a lot more cautious but the old hunger has finally overwhelmed your better judgment. You are a harbinger and you need to feed. You begin to sprint towards the woman, planning on cutting her off and tackling her. It has been too long since you had human flesh and you are practically salivating over the remembered taste.
  
  You realize almost too late that you are not the only thing chasing the woman. She screams out for help while she runs and you think you hear a response from up on the tower but you do not have time to think about it. Right behind the woman are two large mutant animals, they look like farm cats fed steroids having morphed into things larger than cougars and they are about to catch the woman seconds before you do.
  
  The woman is not a threat and despite your hunger you know you must deal with these mutants first or they will tear you apart too. The woman screams again as she finally notices you charging her way, bat raised ready to strike but as she stumbles you step past her and meet the front mutant cat with the full force of your swing sending it crashing to the ground, injured but still moving. You glance at the woman and see something akin to surprise before it returns to fear and she scrambles away toward the silo where you now see three men heading your way.
  
  You turn back as the second mutant attacks you. You know you can't afford to have it jumping around all the time so when it snaps you offer it your arm and it latches on. Once there you start smashing it's head in with your bat. only stopping when it slumps off you to the ground with half of its skull gone.
  
  You are about to turn back to the humans when the first mutant leaps at you again, you hadn't finished it off with that first blow and it knocks you clean off your feet. You realize that it is badly injured and probably could have killed it had the back of your head not landed neatly on a rock, knocking you out cold.
  
  > A painful wakening
  You slowly wake up and immediately feel the pain at the back of your head "Great I came to eat a human and wound up fighting mutants off for her instead" You think as you try and sit up. You realize something is wrong almost the moment you do. You are not outside anymore.
  
  You carefully feel your head while you look around. There is a bad gash but it should heal up in a few days so long as you eat. Your arm is in worse shape with several deep tears in the flesh "can't be helped, taking on two mutants is never a good plan" You think while trying to work out where you are.
  
  Finally you realize you are inside the grain silo you were trying to reach. The humans you saw must have dumped you down here once they scared off the other mutant. "Well thats some gratitude isn't it. I did save her life afterall." You are about to add a comment about how you planned to eat her not save her but you are fortunately cut off by a female voice from above "I know you did and I am sorry but you are bitten, we cannot risk it. I am glad you woke up though. please keep quiet now, they patrol this area at night."
  
  You think about responding but decide against it "They think I am a normal human who did somthing heroic and have put me down here to quarantine me while keeping me safe. this works to my advantage." You carefully lie down again and get some more sleep now that you know you have safety at least until morning.
  
  > Morning in the silo
  You wake at what you assume is the early morning hearing voices from above. They are whispering meaning you cannot hear most of what is said but one is definitely a woman and the other a man, you think they are arguing about you. The woman seems pretty adamant and you assume it is her defending you since she thinks you acted to save her.
  
  You can't make out any more details anyway so you loudly roll over and let out a yawn. The whispering immediately stops and the man calls down "If you are still human prove it now!" You think for a second before replying "You prove that you are human first then I will, I just saved that womans life while you chucked me down here!" You hear the woman cutting in "If he speaks, he is still human Chris and you know it." You hear silence again before a more resigned male voice calls down.
  
  "Ok, so you haven't turned yet but take a look at your arm. They bit you good and we can't risk having you loose until we know you wont turn" You nod to yourself, you proved you were human and that you were not scared of time, time to play nice for a bit "Ok I understand that, it's smart to quarantine those who are bitten but I haven't turned and it's not exactly comfortable down here, I can't even see what I am lying on!"
  
  You hear a creak from above and light floods down into the silo, the metal walls reflecting it to ensure everywhere is lit. You cover your eyes while they get used to the light then look around. You are about 12 feet below the small walkway below the hatch where you can see the two humans sitting. You are currently sitting on top of what appears to be some old fencing thrown down here so you wouldn't sink into the grain below it. You also notice the shambler only a few feet away from you.
  
  You lurch away from it and slip off the fencing boards, finding yourself sinking into the grain slowly when you hear the shout from above "Hold on there, it's trapped and not a thread, get back on the boards before you sink too deep!" You scramble back up again and sit down holding your arm, open wounds are not meant for clambering about, you have no idea if you would actually sink into the grain or if that was just some old myth but you are also not willing to test it out yourself.
  
  You look closer at the shambler and realize that it is indeed trapped. It is up to its shoulders in the grain with a piece of wooden plank sticking into its side, ensuring it cannot move at all. "So mind if I ask what it is doing in here with me then?" You call up and it's the woman that answers "He was one of us, a survivor but he got bitten so we lowered him in there incase he turned. he must have realized he was going because in the night we heard him jump off into the grain and dig himself in before he lost control. It took him over a day to turn in the end." You nod along.
  
  You try to catch and eat a woman and end up trapped in a grain silo with a shambler for company "Just great" You think.
  
  "So how long am I spending down here with no food or water then?" You call up to them. You reply is in the form of a small bag being tossed down to you which you catch deftly 1 handed. "That has some water and some rations, enough to last you three days. That's how long you'll have to stay here for." Then you see the man climb out the hatch. The woman goes to follow then calls down "I'm sorry but we must be sure." Then follows the man out. They at least leave the hatch propped open so you get a little light in.
  
  > Quarantine in the silo
  You are trapped and now along with the shambler in the silo. You could probably escape if you really tried. there are two sections of fence down here, if you stood on one and wedged the other up against the wall you are pretty certain you could make the jump off it and up onto the small walkway. It would be fairley easy to ambush those humans when they returned too.
  
  > go for it, they trapped you in here and eating humans is what you do after all
  You quickly decide that you want out of here so you grab the other piece of fencing and testing it find that it is still good and solid. You are about to wedge it against the wall of the silo when you think about how hungry you are. You place it down and walk over it towards the trapped shambler. You quickly pull the plank out of its side and kill it with it before feeding on it briefly to sate your desire.
  
  You then go back to the original plan and using the wedged fencing you make it up to the walkway with a huge leap. You automatically grab onto the bottom lip to pull yourself up but remember too late about your arm. You feel the slight healing that had happened come undone and blood starts flowing down your arm as you pull yourself up.
  
  You collapse onto the walkway in pain "Now they are really going to pay" you think to yourself, you haven't felt this much pain in years. You check around and find some bags of food, mostly fruit and veg in one corner and assume they are here scavenging. You quickly tear a strip off one of the bags to bind up your wound then move to the corner of the walkway, trying to ensure you will be out of sight when they first come in, and you do not have long to wait.
  
  You watch as the hatch opens and lets more light flood in while you edge as far back into the corner as possible. It is unnecessary though and the woman climbs right in without checking first, seemingly completely sure that you were trapped and not a threat. You watch her move right over to some bags and start unloading some more fruit while the man climbs in behind.
  
  You spring your trap just as he turns his back to you, leaping clean onto his back and forcing him flat instantly. it is a simple task then for you to snap his neck and sit up to look at the woman who lets out a belated scream. You laugh aloud before replying "Sorry my dear but I was actually intending to eat you when those mutants got in the way, don't worry though, I will keep you alive down in the silo until I am finished eating this fo..." You are cut off as you hear the boom and feel the impact in your back.
  
  You are thrown to the ground and roll over in time to see two more men outside the hatch with guns pointed your way "There were three of them when they came to help there woman weren't there, I shouldn't have forgotten that" You think as the second man fires and it goes dark.