(Scott) “hey guys…… what’s that?”

Just as we were about to set out……… Scott asked us a question while pointing off into the distance. When Torri and I turned to look at what caught his eye…… our mouths dropped. We saw a dust cloud on the horizon……. Getting bigger and bigger……… as it got closer and closer……….

As the cloud of dust drifted in from the horizon, what was causing it became clear……

A giant steel cow plow attached to a mack truck carrying a trailer on its hitch……. The closer the monster rig got, the more detail we noticed…….. The rig is a lot bigger than what a normal tractor trailer would look like…… the iron beast was an array of rustic colors due to the different metal paneling used in making what appears to be armor plating, it looks like Frankenstein’s patchwork monster…….

Spikes protruding from every angle…….. gun barrels lining the top…… pipes sticking out of the side…….. It was ready for war.

The rig was heading towards the city on a dirt road a couple of hundred yards away, parallel to us….. Behind the truck are more “creations” creating a Congo line of vehicular monstrosities.

………. It was a convoy of freaks.

A mack truck war machine….. an r.v., a school bus and a garbage truck from hell……. Escorted by 2 suvs and a pickup truck. The r.v. had a front loader…….. metal paneling covering the sides……. And an iron crane claw in the back.

The bus had metal bars covering the windows…….. iron paneling also covering the sides…… and what looks to be gun barrels protruding out of the few windows not covered in bars.

And the garbage truck was the scariest of all……… the metal covering it made it look like a moving fortress…….. an iron wall set on the front of the truck……. Turrets protruding from the sides…. Spikes and pipes coming from underneath the monster………. And the worst of all……….. a tank on top of the damn thing almost like a halftrack just not on tracks.

The convoy was passing by, readily heading towards the city………

One of the escort vehicles…….. a hummer, banked left, breaking off from the group and heading straight towards us. There was what looked to be a 50 Cal mounted atop the suv…….. If they really wanted to kill us they probably would have opened fire already……….. Thank god they didn’t, because the only way we could live through a barrage of 50 cals was if I used my powers……… which I currently can’t use.

The hummer quickly pulled up in front of us……. Its headlights staring directly at us…….like a creature eyeing its prey……… the three of us tensed up……….

The doors of the vehicle opened, and out stepped a man and a woman. Both the man and the woman seemed to be in their thirties or forties. The woman was of small stature and had short blond hair. The man, who was approaching us, was tall and of average build with black hair that’s cut too tight and a confident grin plastered upon his face.

(???man) “hello!”

(Scott) “uh…..hi.”

(Allie) “the names Allie…… this is my partner Shawn.”

(Shawn) “we’re the harvesting crew from omega. We’re out on a gathering mission. ”

(Scott) “uh……what’s a harvesting crew? And what’s omega?”

(Shawn) “what rock did you crawl out from?”

“Omega is not a what, it’s a where. it’s a community of survivors. ”

Honestly I’m not surprised that Scott doesn’t know what any of that is……. Hmmm omega huh? Its probably a “survivor city”. Never heard of it. It either was absorbed or more likely destroyed later on.

In my past life….. after the first couple of years… when I was still trapped in tango company, there was talk of these “survivor cities.” They are basically created when a couple of large groups of survivors band together and create entire communities…. Although….. it’s not even past the first year….. this “omega” he’s talking about is probably more like a slightly bigger version of what we have going on at the hospital.

One of two things happened to a survivor city: they either got big and powerful…… or they disappeared; either absorbed by a larger city, or destroyed/abandoned.

The reason these cities got powerful, was because of the harvesting groups……. They would go out and “farm” abhorred for their crystals. The crystals gathered by the “harvesters” would be used as currency in these cities. People would receive the crystals in return for labor or resources. People would use these crystals to buy necessities, and of course to evolve. This led to the weakest person being a level 4….well not including me anyway. This of course doesn’t happen until much later.

The harvesting also led to a horrifying discovery…… abhorred can reproduce. Even when the abhorred were hunted, their numbers only increased. Furthermore stage ones were still the most common group you could find. To be honest though I don’t know much about it though because it took us nine years to find out why their numbers were not decreasing…… I learned of it only a few months before I died. There was a rumor that a harvester group had stumbled upon a breeding ground of abhorred.

Back to the main topic. The survivor cities from my time were as big as the pre-apocalyptic cities, the amount of these cities however…… in America…… two… and from what I had heard……. Twelve more around the world.

In fact the last thing I had heard was that Haven obtained…….

(Scott) “NOAH!”

(Noah) “w-what?”

(Scott) “Two strangers suddenly appear and they have really big fucking guns and your first thought is to tune them out? What am I going to do with you?”

“He asked if we wanted to come with them and we were just discussing what we are going to do. Considering you are our ticket back home we thought your input might have some value.”

To be honest it would be better to not go with them since I don’t know what happens to their city or even when it happens. However considering the fact that my powers have yet to return……. going with them seems to be the best choice for safety.

(Noah) “To be honest I think we should go along with them.”

(Scott) “are we really going to trust people that we just met? i mean they are very suspicious. How did they even get such monstrous vehicles?”

I momentarily make a quick look over at the daring duo that approached us. We were currently talking in whispers with them staring on, it was a very awkward situation. To be honest my past has taught me you can’t trust anyone in the apocalypse, even those you thought you knew. Hell the only reason I trust Scott is because I know he’s loyal; he’s one of the ones that gave their lives up in sacrifice when tango company raided the hospital. that all would normally be true, however……….

(Noah) “I think we can trust them a little….. if they truly wanted something from us, they wouldn’t have to give us a choice. Just like you said, they have really big fucking guns.”

“of course we shouldn’t trust them fully, but with my powers unusable for the moment, and all on our own …… they are probably the safest bet.”

(Torri) “I agree. We’ve been lucky so far but we might run into….”

(Shawn) “If you guys are coming then get in the truck we got places to be.”

(Allie) “Shawn you don’t have to be so abrasive to everyone.”

(Shawn) “They are taking too long; we’re falling behind the rest of the group.”

(Noah) “We’ll go.”

(Shawn) “Then get in.”