text: [Themes: horror, horror]
  
  You wake in the morning feeling refreshed but hungry and wolf down your meal; it seems that your metal exercises are burning through as much food as a heavy physical workout would. You grab an extra tin to take up with you (Which is allowed now that there is more food coming in) and head up to the front balcony you are due to guard today, you'll have another guard with you today but that shouldn't interfere with your training too much.
  
  When you arrive though you find the Capt. talking to the other guard there already, he smiles and gives you a wave before including you in the conversation. "Andrew here" He indicates the other guard. "Was part of the team that found the shambler yesterday. They dealt with it excellently however his team believes there are more in the area so I was getting his input on today's missions. Where do you think they should head to avoid infected?"
  
  He is clearly smiling and asking in a lighthearted manner but again you get the feeling like something is not quite right so you answer carefully. "Well the area I did my last mission in seems very clear; we didn't see any signs of infected at all up that way." He simply nods and after a few more pleasantries he heads back down into the stadium, presumably to give out his orders.
  
  Once he is long gone you turn to the other guard. "So does he often ask guards about their opinions?" Andrew thinks for a moment. "Not too often, usually just after an incident or something, I guess since things have been so clear recently finding a shambler might count." You nod along before settling into your chair and beginning your exercises again.
  
  You immediately find that your passive grip on your little horde is still there and you can immediately just start controlling them without the time taken to sense and grab their minds. Then as before you move them very clear of the scavengers heading out and begin testing the limits of your abilities.
  
  It isn't long before you notice the movement and see a shambler heading your way from the South. You know by now that its movements are far too purposeful to be normal. "So he's back" you think as you wait to see what the harbinger's puppet does. You let it get a few blocks closer before realizing that he won't do anything before he knows you can see the message so you reach out and test the shamblers mind, finding it blocked from your control, however it does almost instantly stop and begin waving you South again. "Another polite invitation it seems." You think as it begins walking away again.
  
  You let it leave and finally get relieved for lunch about the time you're getting very tired from your training. The other guard nods to you as he heads off to sit with his friends and you do the same, eating every scrap you are given. The evening passes uneventfully and the scavenging teams return successfully, seems they all went out the way you suggested and brought back a lot of food without incident.
  
  You have a choice in the morning though, the harbinger seems like he hasn't given up on you yet.
  
  > keep blocking him out, you have everything you need right here, make sure to keep a good grip on your horde though.
  You head to bed having decided that you're still going to ignore the harbinger and stick with your home in the stadium, there's even been rumors recently about a move East to join up with the larger Eastern colony across the river. As you fall asleep you carefully make sure to leave a passive mental hold on your horde, just in case.
  
  You are woken a few hours before dawn with a strange tightness in your head. You quickly realize the weird sensation is coming from one of the groups of your mini horde. You reach out to them and strengthen your grip on them when you realize the sensation is being cause by something else pulling on their minds. "He's trying to steal my horde!" you think as you mentally tighten you grip and try various tactics to shake him off. Finally you find a way of visualizing a shield for them that blocks his attempt and he seems to retreat after that. "Seemed a little easy considering everything but I'll have to make sure I practice defending them too."
  
  You spend the next few hours training then head to breakfast. You're on guard duty the next few days then scavenges after that so plenty of time for more training.
  
  > The next few weeks
  The next couple of weeks passed without further 'Harbinger' interference. He did send a couple more infected to signal you but it looks like he finally got the message and you haven't seen anything from him in days.
  
  Since you've accepted your place with the normal, acting as a secret caretaker and training to improve your abilities you feel faster and stronger than ever before, you begin seeing better in the dark and you can control an entire horde while barely trying. You even learn the subtle differences involved in affecting the fast types and mutants minds. You train briefly with crazies but their minds with the strange mix of haziness and cracks seemed to always shift and move even while you were trying to grasp them so you gave up after learning enough to get rid of them.
  
  By the end of the second week you have fully embraced your role as the new alpha guardian of your friends. Sure you were once human, but now you are more, evolved beyond what humans thought to be possible. You see in nearly pitch black, you move at speeds you couldn't have imagined and you can punch through solid doors without more than a few scratches on your skin. You can now easily control an extensive horde without much effort and direct small teams separately without difficulty. You believe that you have become what humans always dreamed of. You decide that wearing a cape and underpants on the outside might be a step too far though so keep your normal clothing.
  
  The other major development recently is that the Capt. revealed his plans to get everyone to the Eastern community across the river. They would be making a large push the next day, led by a military jeep with a mounted machine gun they had been keeping secret. Your work keeping the streets clear of infected had made scouting a path to the East fairly easy.
  
  > The morning of the East Run
  The morning comes and the captain gathers everyone briefly and outlines a plan to head East. They have one working Military Jeep that they have been saving and lots of guns and ammo stockpiled for the attempt. Everyone is going along. They plan to head at a good pace just around the North of the city center along roads that have been scouted in advance over the past few weeks and head right for the bridge in force, they haven't made it that far in scouting but they are hoping that once there the colony can help if there are problems. Once over and safely near the 'Eastern Haven' as they call it, some of them will return with the jeep and begin their work here again to gather more survivors and get them across when they grow in number.
  
  The time arrives and you all gear up and follow the jeep, it weaves through the barricades and you all push the moveable ones out of its way until it stands ready to go on the road, its 50cal. reassuringly manned on the roof. Unbeknown to the others you have your horde come along for the trip too, You've been adding to it over the weeks and now have around 150 under your control including a couple of mutant dogs.
  
  "All stay close to the jeep and keep moving, we don't stop for 4 hours when we make our first checkpoint, if you are too tired to continue then ride the tailgate and side seats on the jeep for a few minutes but switch out fairly."
  
  Then you are moving. This level of exercise is nothing to you so you don't feel the need to rest even as you near the 3 hour mark. However you do suddenly sense something ahead. You stretch your senses out and immediately see a large horde waiting directly in your path ahead and a smaller group a couple of roads North, probably to close the trap.
  
  > warn the Capt. Now before it is too late, he mentioned alternate routes for emergencies and this definitely counts as one.
  It's a big risk telling them about the trap now but it's the only chance to avoid them all getting slaughtered. You run up beside the Captains window.
  
  You are a little unsure how you plan to start the conversation as you look into the open window and find the captain watching you with an unreadable expression. You quickly run over a few options of what to say but he is clearly simply waiting for you to speak or act and so you launch into the simplest explanation you can while trying to keep your secret.
  
  "Look, erm Sir, I can't explain why I know but there is a trap up ahead. The road will be blocked and there is a huge horde of infected to the East and North, We have to turn away before it's too late."
  
  You pause and wait for his reaction, the flow of questions and possible guns pointed but he just keeps staring at you for a few moments before saying quietly to his driver "Route D" and standing up out of his window. He calls out to the people jogging around and behind. "At the next main road, 1 block ahead, we turn due South for several blocks before East again, this is to avoid a dangerous area, we will have a rest stop once we are to the appointed location."
  
  He sits back down inside the Jeep and you see all the soldiers shift very slightly but give no indication of worry. The people behind simply nod along then keep jogging, assuming that this was all the original plan with no idea how close they came to being massacred.
  
  The Capt. gives you another look. "Assuming your information is correct we should have no problems, just be sure to stay Ynearby at all times." He turns away to converse with his driver, clearly finished with the conversation. You begin falling back slightly when you notice for the first time that one of the soldiers riding on the back of the jeep is the sniper with the 50.cal and its pointed right at you. The sniper simply nods to you and goes back to watching the road ahead but you note that the barrel of the rifle never wavers away from you.
  
  > Turning the convoy South
  You sense ahead as the convoy approaches the turning and see that the horde is still in place, there is also another mind there, different from the others. It seem brighter but tainted like a deep red sun that you can't, and don't, try to affect. "So the other harbinger is there himself waiting" you think to yourself as the Jeep swings wide round the corner and heads South along with the survivors. "But I got away with it, they might chase us but they listened and we avoided the trap!" You turn the corner yourself, still jogging near the tailgate of the jeep when you feel something slam into your head, You realize instantly that it's not a physical pain as a headache worse than anything else you have felt before stabs into your mind. You feel anger, cold and almost feral along with the pain.
  
  You try to block the pain out and realize that this is an attack, something is trying to force its way into your mind the way you force yourself into the mind of the infected, and it is succeeding. You barely act in time and try your best to force up barricades against the attack, visualizing everything you can think of to try and block, what must be the other harbinger, out. You feel the attack lessen for a moment but then you feel the pressure intensify against your makeshift mental defenses and you immediately know that they are much stronger than you. Your defenses are going to fail soon.
  
  You're jolted back to reality for a moment as you feel yourself being lifted and opening your eyes you realize that two soldiers are carrying you, one on each arm. You must have stumbled to a standstill. You also feel blood pouring down your chin; you must have the worst nosebleed in history.
  
  You feel your defenses failing and you close your eyes again to concentrate better, you just about feel yourself being thrown onto the tailgate and held in place as the soldiers joke a little too loudly about you trying to show off and pushing it too hard.
  
  You have no more time to think about just how hard they are pinning you to the jeep as your defenses crumble further and the pain threatens to knock you out. You know you have gotten the convoy away but on the periphery you can feel the enemy horde beginning to move after them.
  
  Use the last of your energy holding out. The Jeep should carry you out of the other harbingers range soon and you can recover enough to fend the infected off. It might be the only way to survive.
  
  Your defenses are failing and fast, split your concentration and send your horde to intercept the enemy one. You might have your mind broken right away but it might stop the harbinger following.
  
  > Holding the defence
  You aren't going to split your concentration now; you give everything you have to holding your defenses up and think of nothing else. The Jeep moves further south, but only at a jogging pace and the pain gets worse.
  
  You feel the attack lessen for a moment and think you plan is working before it slams back harder than before and you feel your last defenses fail. The intense pain remains but you can't fight it now, or do anything at all really. You feel something in your mind and hear an old man's voice. "You almost ruined my plans, after I was so nice in my invitations and gave you every chance! I honestly wanted you to join me as you show so much potential but you chose to defy me instead! You did help me though, this little horde you brought is now entirely mine too and that has increased my forces considerably. I shall have the convoy over-run within the hour. I will lose more of my horde this way but your additions to my forces will more than make up for that. Goodbye!"
  
  You feel the pain suddenly intensify then stop, then you quickly feel everything going numb and stop thinking altogether.