text: [Themes: sci-fi]
  
  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...
  
  > 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.
  
  > 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.