I made my way back to Dave’s office and swapped out the final disk before sitting at the desk and going over my loot and equipment. I reloaded my pistol, which I’d neglected to do when I first entered the bunker, then I checked over everything else. My job was done. I’d learned what I needed to, made copies, found insurance of a kind, and could now return to my side of the Cut without concern, and leave everything else behind. It was the smart thing to do. The rational thing.

I grabbed my pack, holstered my gun and made my way back to the entrance to the bunker. Once there, I slipped on the gas mask and gave it a try. It made a slight humming noise, and I realized it had no cartridge for air. I’d seen a few like it before, it must’ve worked by filtering what air was there rather than relying on cartridge replacements. I took a few deep breaths to test it, then I activated the door, and watched as it slowly slid to the side.

I walked out and sat just outside the cave for a short while, listening for whispers, and looking to see if I saw anything that shouldn’t be there, but after about an hour with nothing happening, I decided that the gas mask was working as intended. I began moving through the mist. I didn’t make my way back to the edge of it, not now that I could traverse it safely. Instead I started making my way across it in a grid pattern. I had my shotgun drawn, I wouldn’t be able to see my targets far enough away with the rifle.

It wasn’t long before I started seeing the signs of my quarry. A few mutated animals torn limb from limb, and a blood trail. I followed it until I heard the gnashing of teeth, and unsettling barking. I crouched low as I approached, keeping my shotgun ready, and came upon a group of three feral deadmen. They were tearing into the corpse of some kind of irradiated beaver the size of a small bear. I crept forward, raising my shotgun.

When I was only a step behind one of them, I froze him, and pulled the trigger. His head exploded, fragments of his skull tearing into the flesh of the other two.

The others were stunned, stumbling backward and roaring as they took notice of me.

I cocked the shotgun quickly, froze one, and fired on the other. I hit him center mass, and knocked him back several yards. I took a moment to slide two shells into the gun, then held it to the frozen one’s head. I didn’t want them to suffer any more than was necessary. I pulled the trigger, and he was dead too. I heard movement behind me, and turned around just in time to see another of them lunging at me. With my sense of smell inhibited by the mask it was like I was running around half blind.

She tackled me to the ground, but I was able to kick her off quickly before rolling to my feet and firing on her. That stopped her for a moment, and I watched as the wounds on her sealed together. I grimaced, and froze her, holstering the shotgun and drawing my sword. I brought it down clean, cutting off her head. It gnashed its teeth on the ground for a few more seconds before stopping.

I let out a long sigh, then reloaded, cleaned my sword, and continued walking in my grid pattern. This cycle repeated a few more times. I’d come across a small group, creep up on them, and dispatch them quickly. Sometimes one would catch me off guard, other times they would have enhanced healing or strength and take a bit more effort to take down. It was a waste of resources. All I had to do was leave, and it didn’t seem that they’d be able to leave the mist, but I couldn’t bring myself to. I’d come dangerously close to succumbing to the madness myself, being lost in a forest of my worst memories, nothing more than a rabid animal with only a herding and hunting instinct. I couldn’t leave my fellow deadmen to that fate.

By the end of it I’d killed a bit over forty of them. Every one of them I could find, or that had found me. I made my way out of the mist, near where I’d first entered it after arriving in Eden territory, and sat down, removing my mask. My sense of smell was immediately overwhelmed with the scent of blood and gunpowder from the fighting I’d done. I took a few moments to adjust to that, and spent some time staring into nothing, I noticed I had a number of notifications. I pulled them up.

Excellent work Marshall! You’ve successfully performed the primary goal of your job ‘Completing Investigations’! You’ve earned 450 Patriot Points!

Congratulations Citizen! You have earned a rank in Investigation! Here in the US we have the right to question everything, except freedom!

Congratulations Citizen! You have earned ranks in Long guns! Good job exercising your 2nd amendment rights!

Excellent work Marshall! You’ve successfully performed a secondary goal of your job ‘Combat’! You’ve earned 60 Patriot Points!

Congratulations Citizen! You have earned ranks in Melee Weapons! From Bowie knives to Pickett’s charge, the US may have been too advanced for swords, but it’s spilled blood for freedom!

Congratulations Citizen! You have earned a rank in tracking! Like the brave indian on the fertile grasses of the west following herds of buffalo, you carry on a proud tradition!

Excellent work Marshall! You’ve successfully performed a secondary goal of your job ‘Combat’! You’ve earned 60 Patriot Points!

Congratulations Citizen! You have earned ranks in Melee Weapons! From Bowie knives to Pickett’s charge, the US may have been too advanced for swords, but it’s spilled blood for freedom!

Congratulations Citizen! You have earned a rank in tracking! Like the brave indian on the fertile grasses of the west following herds of buffalo, you carry on a proud tradition!

Excellent work Marshall! You’ve successfully performed a secondary goal of your job ‘Combat’! You’ve earned 60 Patriot Points!

It was a good haul. Much more than I expected. In all the commotion I’d forgotten that I’d initiated an investigation for the search of the bunker. I didn’t feel any guilt for profiting off of the ferals I’d killed. It was just a slight perk for ending their suffering. Suffering that may have gone on for decades, possibly longer if any of them had been as ‘blessed’ as the First had been. Putting them down reminded me of the creatures I saw in the Cut. I wasn’t sure if their suffering was equivalent to the Ferals. It seemed that they’d likely been born the way they were, not knowing anything different, but I had to consider that I might need to find a way to grant them the same mercy, though the thought of returning to their tunnels sent a shiver down my spine.

I brought myself back up to my feet and began making my way back toward Eden territory. I’d noticed that I hadn’t received a completion notification for the investigation I’d set up for discovering what was going on there. Now that I knew that the system was as janky as it was, it could’ve just been an error of some kind, but I suspected there was more going on, and it was possible the system did too.

First I went toward the area where I’d first left the Eden guards I’d encountered before. There were two guards there, but they were different then the ones that had initially escorted me. I could smell that two more were just a bit further along the trail. I thought for a moment that they were simply switching shifts of waiting, then I realized the ones in the woods weren’t moving. It was an ambush, set up for me.

I took note of their position, and decided, instead of going with my initial instinct to kill them, I’d need to take some of Nico’s… some of my sister’s advice. I took the long way around them, and entered the outskirts of Eden without drawing their attention. I moved through the woods carefully, breathing deeply, and searching for any hint of patrols or defenses, but finding none. As far as they were concerned, they only needed to guard the one part of their territory that wasn’t irradiated, the Deadmen in Eden wanted to be there after all. I slipped around and found my way back to the main path, coming to an area where it branched off. I took the path I’d been guided around by Joseph and Sampson the first time. I needed more intel, more information about how Eden operated. Once I knew what they were hiding, I could decide what to do about the First.

I sighed as I walked. I thought I’d be able to ignore what I encountered on this side of the Cut. To avoid trouble, do my job, collect my pay, and move on, but things had changed. I wasn’t the Postman who delivered his packages, kept his head down, and moved on. I was more than that now, and there were some things I just couldn’t ignore. I'd need to be careful, especially since I was now carrying a system update. While The First and his people hadn't seemed interested in the R.A.S. that didn't mean that couldn't change. I'd need to make sure to keep my distance, or kill any of them that I got close to. It was risky, but I couldn't let things stand as they were.