text: [Themes: horror, post-apocalyptic]
  
  The only smart choice left now is to bypass whatever else is left in this section of the city and head North-East to the Highway then follow it East to the river.
  
  You start wearily, checking each alleyway before you cross it and avoiding alleyways but after a few hours pass with no incidents you get a little cockier and pick up the pace. You do see one shambler but just keep walking by at a good pace and its unable to get out of the alley it was in before you are long past it.
  
  You get fairly hungry by evening and are beginning to keep an eye out for tell-tale signs of places which might contain food when you finally see the Highway on-ramp. You jog up it through the packed cars and see what you were hoping for, a rest-stop. Isolated position contains food and big shutters for defense. After the city had recently fallen to the infected you found many groups of survivors holed up in places like this, they weren't always happy to see more visitors though so you approach carefully.
  
  You move through the cars packing every inch of the raised road and finally get close enough to see the door of the rest-stop broken into with the windows smashed in, seems like this one didn't get the shutters down before it was overwhelmed by trapped people who realized too late that the high-way was a deathtrap and the infected who were chasing them.
  
  You move a little quicker, still careful of the cars around you, no telling what's inside them after all and finally get close enough to peek in through one of the broken windows. Broken store items and blood everywhere, a few piles of shelving near the windows. "So they did try and hold out here for a short time at least." You think as you head inside. All the signs look very old so you aren't confident about finding any real food but you do find some dried meat strips which are better than nothing so you bag them and head out to find a van for the evening to sleep in.
  
  You come across a small delivery van which looks promising and start to get close to it when you hear a slight noise up ahead. It was so quiet you aren't even sure you heard anything but your instincts are screaming at you to pay attention so you keep still and listen. A few second later you hear it again, a small scraping noise from the van ahead, something is inside it.
  
  > run for it, no telling what someone locked in there
  There is no way you are finding out what someone thought to lock in the back of a van, sure there is a chance that it is a survivor but what are the odds? In the entire mega-city full of infected and ever dwindling numbers of survivors that you just happen to pick the same van for the night as one?
  
  You carefully and quietly edge round the cars near the van and once you are clear you jog, then run for a fair distance before slowing down when you are sure nothing is following you. It takes a few more minutes but you find another likely looking resting spot, a van parked in the rest lane with the logo of an old furniture company of the back.
  
  It takes a little work but you break the lock off the back as quietly as possible and slip inside, jamming and wedging it shut after you. You give yourself a moment to let you eyes adjust then examine the contents. There are a few small bits of furniture but your eye is quickly drawn to a large padded sofa still in its wrapping, seems no-one had gotten in here before you. You quickly unwrap the sofa and lie down on the most luxurious thing you have felt in years. It's not long before you slip off to sleep.
  
  > Choices for the morning
  The morning comes with you still relaxing on the sofa, you don't actually need 'The full eight hours' as everyone used to say but it's just nice to relax on something so padded and comfortable for a change. You can't stay on the sofa for-ever though so an hour after dawn you rouse yourself , swing your pack onto your shoulder and head back out into the world.
  
  You keep your bat ready but the Highway seems strangely deserted. you were sure that you would find more infected here but barring scattered long dead bodies, there just aren't very many. You climb onto a truck and look in either direction.
  
  "Cars jammed in either direction as far as I can see, but no infected to speak of" You think as you climb down and work out your choices for your next move.
  
  Head South, North or East. South would be right into the city centre which you are pretty cetrain is suicide, every time you have come close to there you have nearly been torn to pieces by mutants and hordes of infected. East leads to the Colony and at least the roads look quite clear. North leads out of the city, you heard there are packs of infected out there but not much else of use to you.
  
  > South, into the City
  You have had bad fortune before but it can't be all bad in the city Centre can it? That is where they had the best of everything and where the military eventually tried falling back too so it is very possible you will find small communities hiding out at the top of the skyscraper apartments or in the malls or police stations.
  
  You take the next off-ramp South and begin following one of the main roads down into the city. The cars are just as tightly packed as up on the highway and you know it must have been people trying to flee once the virus took hold in the confines of the city centre. "Everyone always assumes they will just jump into a car and drive away from the danger, do they not realize how dumb that is? Every other person will be thinking the same thing and panicking so an accident is guaranteed to block the roads and turn them into a death-trap." You sigh to yourself about human stupidity and move on pass the smashed into cars, imagining all the fools sitting in the vehicles and honking their horns at each other as the infected hordes smashed open the cars one by one like a wave flowing out fom the city.
  
  After a few hours of walking you cross a strangely bare East/West road which someone has cleared off of cars leaving a straight run in either direction. You make note of it and continue South as you are noticing a lot more infected about and don't want to hang around in the open too long.
  
  By the afternoon you are getting hungry and after going through your pack and scrounging around you put together a meager snack and realize you will need to find some food soon too.
  
  > start looking for a likely source of food
  You search around for a couple of hours but find the area has clearly been looted and then looted again, there simply isn't much here. You do find a multi-story shopping mall though and after a lot of searching you come up with a couple of old tins of preserved meat. Not exactly a meal but you decide that beggars can't be choosers and make the most of it before heading onto the roof.
  
  Looking North you can just make out the Highway cutting across the tops of the buildings, East and west looks nearly identical, lots of teo and 3 story buildings, a mic of offices and apartments. To the South however you can easily see the beginnings of the skyscrapers. The nearest ones are not really skyscrapers, only 20 or 30 stories high, but they quickly grow to the monoliths that populate the Centre of the city. Huge towering structures which used to hold tens of thousands of people each before the infection.
  
  You consider heading further South now but the searching for food has pushed you closer to evening so you decide to search out a few more tins if you can and camp out here for the night.
  
  > Morning in the Mall
  You wake several times in the night to the howling of mutant dogs and noises caused by things you do not recognize off to the South. At one point you are sure you hear things entering the mall but luckily you camped out on the roof with the door barred so you are not disturbed yourself. By morning though you have remembered the last times you got this close to the skyscrapers and how you nearly didn't make it back each time.
  
  You look back over the view as you make your choice
  
  > Back North to the Highway then decide a new path
  The Trip back North is fairly un-eventful, it seems like a mutant pack did come through and clear out some of the shamblers so you make good progress back to the highway even with a stop to eat the rest of the tins you had gathered. When you finally make it back to your sofa van you have a lie down.
  
  After a nights rest on your new favourite place you make your choice.
  
  > East along the Highway
  Heading right for the colony seems to be the smartest move, you cannot see many infected along the highway so it should be relatively safe for a while at least.
  
  You set off at a quick walk, keeping an eye out on your surroundings just in case there was an infected you didn't see before but after a full days walking you only find a single infected and it was trapped inside a car. You find a small van to use for the night and once more set out in the morning for the Eastern colony.
  
  The next few days pass in much the same way, you walk and scavenge in rest-stops for whatever scraps of food you can. Your hunger is getting the better of you by the end but you finally reach the Eastern Bridge and sigh to yourself "An entire colony of human survivors, thousands of them in one place and I will be there soon".
  
  You stumble to a halt when you suddenly hear a voice in your mind "And what do you plan to do to all those humans little harbinger?" You look around you but there is no movement, you can just about make out shamblers on the bridge ahead but the voice was as clear as if someone had spoken right beside your ear. "Where are you, come out!" You loudly declare to the deserted highway around you but only hear laughter in response before finally a reply comes, once more directly into your mind "Oh dear me, actually looking around. I realized you were fresh but that was utterly adorable. I am in the Eastern Colony you were just thinking about. So once more I ask you little harbinger, what do you intend to do with the humans once you get here?"
  
  Well they know you are a harbinger so the answer is obvious "I plan to eat them." you reply simply before expanding "That many humans will sustain me for years to come."
  
  "There is a pause before the reply comes "That is too bad, a future red cannot be allowed to live, you are too dangerous." THe pain which follows is like a spike between your eyes. Luckily it ends quickly along with your life.