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Arien's Toyota Tundra had always held a special place in his heart. It was his first vehicle, it saved his and the lives of his best friend and little sister during the NYC bombing run, and served with him for an additional two years in Maine as one of the only working vehicles in his settlement. Crippled by a cracked rear axle, discovered after a mission, he was forced to abandon it one week before his journey began. He has no clue what has become of his beloved pickup.

11:09PM

October 20th,2024

It wasn't until about 11 PM, well after the sun had gone down and everyone had showers, that we all gathered in the living room. There was a certain attribute to the silence, and this knot feeling in my chest that I wasn't quite sure how to deal with. Nat and Ben were sitting on the couch with Nero in Nat's lap, while Mya was on Zack's shoulder, who was in the bean bag near the window and Eirren was leaning up against the wall. James was on his knees leaning against the back of his sofa, resting his head on his arms, Shannon was next to him. Everyone looked defeated, hell even James did. I had been pacing the living room in silence for about 20 minutes, my muscles still screaming in agony from the sudden motion during the skirmish. Nat eventually broke the silence.

"So...again...without the Ford, what the hell do we do now? We certainly aren't walking to Texas."

"We could clear out Marshal", Benjamin suggested, "why not just live there? Plenty of space for all of us."

"You saw the Scourged for yourself", James sighed, "you saw what it took to get us out of that situation, and clearing the town would mean we not only have to kill everyone of them, but attract them on top of that. We couldn't let one live. What do we do? House to house CQC? Is anyone here up for that?"

"Does the town even have power?", Shannon asked.

"No", James asked, "All the power around here came from the Morgantown Industrial Park about 4 miles from here. Now, it's a little more than a pile of scrap metal at the bottom of an irradiated crater, 4 ton dumb bomb straight down a smoke stack, set off a pretty wicked chain reaction. Aside from makeshift solar, wind or a liquid fuel generator, outta luck."

"Where's your power coming from?", Shannon asked.

He shrugged, "my AC has a generator built in, if it's a flammable liquid, in the tank it goes. Well is the same way, don't care much about the light, it burns my skin anyway."

"What about just living here?", Benjamin asked, "enough houses around here for all of us. We'd have to deal with those bandits first, because there's no way they won't come back."

"That's not going to work Ben", James said, "I've re-insulated this house three times, and when summer comes around, I'll be camping out on my mattress near the purge vent, because even seven tons of R23 powered package unit isn't a match for 140 degrees of summer heat. None of the houses around here have power or running water. And even if they did, their AC's aren't strong enough to combat the heat."

"Yours is", Benjamin said.

James shifted in his seat, "lemme tell you a little something about that Frankenstein of a unit. That unit is what happens when a guy whose been gifted with refrigeration since he was a cub that constantly has an unholy disease tearing at his mind and body decides he's tired of sweating, but can't exactly ring up a supply house and is forced to improvise. It has six coils, three, rebuilt liquid cooled semi-hermetic reciprocating compressors managing three different refrigerants through three different circuits running on some technology used by chillers and some I develop as I go. It's got 12 different capacities with an old laptop wired to work as a control broad using morose code to send electrical impulses to a rats nest of wires, contactors and relays, all crammed into the box of an 10 ton roof top unit I welded the bottom up on, did I also mention it has three, modified heat pump reversing valves on each compressor that work as master cylinders to cycle capacities and circuits? The damn thing is about as unreliable as it gets, so much so I want to invent a new word for it. R410A, R404A and R23 were never designed to mix. The damn thing just doesn't want to run the way I need it too, and with the flooded humidifier thrown in on top of the mess", he clicked his tongue, "I'd be in the supply house spending a small fortune on copper fittings and solder with the amount of work I do on the thing."

"Seems like you've done a good job of keeping it around so far", Nero said, intending it as a compliment. James wasn't so convinced. He sighed.

"Nero, it's dying. When it does, I won't be able to bring it back and my house becomes completely unlivable."

"I know a little about that kind of thing", I interjected, "curious as to how you've made a multi-refrigerant, six coiled unit run at all, especially with it being packaged. It certainly doesn't strike me as being unreliable, the damn thing tries to freeze Eirren and I out of our room every time it kicks on."

"It's been on it's best behavior the past few weeks", James said, "All 3 circuits have been cooperating, haven't lost any contactors and the humidifier is properly flooded, which shouldn't be worrisome, but it is. I don't wonder if I'm about to let the smoke out of one of the chu-chu trains. If that happens, man am I fucked seven ways to Sunday."

"So in short?", Benjamin asked.

"If the unit dies again, doesn't matter how insignificant the problem is", James said, "I can't bring it back."

"Why is that?", I asked.

"The same animals who stole the Ford made off with my work truck a month or so back", James said, "it contained all of my everything. I currently have no tools."

"Could have just said that to begin with", Ben scoffed.

"James, aren't you blind?", I asked.

"Yes and no", James said, "if I get out in the sun I can't see a damn thing. Once it goes down though, I can see for miles around. Demons don't fear the dark, we fear the light."

"So...what about the ones that we engaged up north?", Nat asked.

"Describe 'em", James stated.

"Kind of small", Nat said, "colored like sand, neatly arranged horns, big ass Ford logo from where it got bulldozed by the previous owner of our Excursion."

"I can't speak to the Ford insignia, but they sound like some more of the common Demons that come from horned lizards. They all mutate pretty much the same. They go out in the day, but they cover their eyes with their paws and hunt by sound because they fear the light."

"So do I apparently", I said, "sure we can hoof it at night, but once the sun comes out we belong to him and a bullet to the brain would be an easier way of committing suicide. Even if we could brace against the heat we have no water, don't know where to obtain it and have no way of carrying enough between sources", I paused, "without a vehicle, we're just so many different kinds of fucked it ain't even funny."

Silence fell over us for a good long while, Zack broke it this time.

"Arien, I mastered diesel powertrains, but I know my way around a socket set and quite a few sets of underpinnings, if we can find another Excursion or similarly sized vehicle, we can swap an IDI into it assuming we can find one. Sure, we won't have what we had with the Ford, but it'd be better than nothing."

"Zack, what are the odds of finding everything we need to accomplish that?", I asked, "realistically I mean?"

"Slim, but brother we've got to do something", Zack said, "sitting on our tails and pouting is going to get us killed."

"Or end up like me", James said, "feasting on corpses and murdering your lungs with a carton a day of Capri 120's."

"Why can't we just walk it?", Shannon asked, "I'm a female Mink, and a tiny one at that and I managed okay even with 50 pounds of equipment and a pistol caliber carbine."

"You didn't have a sea creature or a forest dragon with you either", Eirren said, "or two little puppies to look after."

"Talk about a defeatist attitude", Shannon sighed.

"She has a point though", James said, "the desert cuts no favors. It'll be 120 by noon tomorrow, you couldn't carry enough water to get to where you're going on foot, plain and simple. Good luck finding it in the desert too."

"How have you been making it by?", Eirren asked.

"Partially because of my sickness", James said, "need less water and more of everything else. Why I can drink the blood of my prey and not be bothered by it. Plus I have a deep well, like 400 feet."

"Sickening", Benjamin commented.

"Hey she asked me", James defended, "even the best equipment and survival skills are only going to take you so far. All of that shit I gave you guys is awesome, but you kinda gotta be alive to use it. It's only worth anything to the animal that picks over your corpse if you kill over after dehydrating. There's a reason that things that live down here only come out at night."

"Trailer trashed, truck stolen, out of water and a Frankenstein of an AC that could die at any second. Two little puppies and two team mates whose very biology would allow the sun to rape them in a mater of minutes", Nat said, "whole lotta' problems and not a lotta' answers."

"Well", James said, "I hate to even suggest this. Wanted to be done with this hell on Earth, but Morgantown is near by. Lots of Scourged there, but, it was a large center for Arm & Assist for West Virginia. Now, the supplies are long, long gone, but I'd be willing to bet that there may still be one or two APC's around, and even if there aren't, there are so many cars and trucks around that one of them is bound to be in serviceable condition. Though the power generation side of the plant is a trashed, irradiated crater, there's a very small chemical plant there to where lots of refrigeration work was going on, and there's more supplies there than you might think. Most of the parts for my pet package unit came from there."

"What makes it so bad?", I asked.

"I know you've seen some shit since you left home Arien, but nothing can prepare you for the horrors of that damn plant. I can't explain it, I don't want to, but if you think you're brave enough, I'll show you."

"We don't have a lot of options", I mused, "Zack, I don't suppose you can synthesize unleaded can you?"

Zack shook his head, "not with vegetable oil and oven cleaner. I doubt we could even find usable gasoline any more. It goes bad after three years."

"Well, we have a plan at least, but the question is, whose going?", I asked.

Excluding Nero and Mya, there wasn't a single paw in the room that wasn't up.

"We can't all go hoofing around the wasteland", James said, "it's just going to attract attention."

"Last time we let you boys out of our sight, Arien got stabbed by a giant wasp", Nat said, "there is NO way we're letting you guys out on your own again."

James gave me a funny look.

"She is right", I said, "we do things as a family...all of us."

Everyone's eyes fell on James. He sighed and shook his head.

"Why?", he asked, "you would take an Animal whose admitted he's so fucked in the head that he can snap at literally any moment and try and eat you. What benefit do you see in me that so outweighs the risk of my condition?

"Well you know, it works like this", I said, "you let us into your house, pretty much gave us free reign, deployed on mission with us and gave us unfeathered access to all of the supplies and equipment you stock piled for yourself. After that, we can't just walk away and leave you out here by yourself."

"You're not gonna gimme a choice in the matter. Are you?", James asked through a sort of half grin.

"Like hell we are", Zack said, "whether you like it or not, you're one of us now."

"Well in that case", James said, "if we're all going to the city, I need to warn you now, we can't take one step inside the limits without gas masks. The area is pretty heavily contaminated with chemicals and all kinds of other shit from when it took that 4,000 pound dumb bomb down the smoke stack of a massive, coal fired furnace. The City itself is the sight of a small atomic detonation, courtesy of the Africans, so it's not going to be safe for non reptiles...or those of us who lack the nuclear blood type, to enter, so you all are going to have to hold up in the office building just outside the park while the rest of us do what needs to be done. You'll be safe there, the air is rather stale, but it's breathable."

"Will we be able to maintain radio contact?", Shannon asked, "Zack and I will have to watch the kids, so we need to be able to alert you to problems should they arise."

"Depends on where we end up looking", James said, "I imagine that the heavy stone and iron work that went into the park could screw with radio signals, but I can't say for sure because it's just me out here and haven't been able to test for it. Aside from that, long as we stay out of the Dead Zones, we'll be able to stay on the radio with little trouble I imagine."

"Dead Zones?", I asked, "have them all the way out here too huh?"

"You know about them?", James asked.

'Went through one some states back", Nat said, "it screwed with the Ford's electronics. My buddy Khen used to race through them in his RX-7 because they would mess with the ECU and the boost controller. And when you're making 1200 horsepower, those aren't good things to lose."

"The ones around the park can pull knives from sheaths", James said, "I have a five hundred dollar combat knife that's stuck to a smoke stack out there. I try and retrieve it every time I go by, no dice."

"What might that do to our Corium?", Benjamin asked.

"Probably yank it from our bodies", Nat sighed, "fuck. My suit's made out of iron too..."

"Long as we stay away from them", James said, "it won't be an issue."

"How long should we expect to be on this outing for?", I asked.

James shrugged, "at least until you find a vehicle worthy of your time. That, I can't attest to. If you want me to come with you, we'll still need something sized similarly to the Excursion and a trailer to tow behind it."

"That could take a while", I said, "Zack, you happen to know your way around an Oxyacetylene rig? I have a feeling we may need to improvise."

"I pretty much re-built an entire car once with nothing but that and some wrenches. So for cutting and welding, yes."

"Anyone of us can cut and glue carpet to a truck bed", Shannon said, "can't be that hard to find some nice stuff either, lots of houses around."

"Before we go any further", I said, "let's make absolutely certain we're all on the same page here. Once we start, we can't stop. We know bandits exist and operate in this area, and I guarantee those bandits that stole the Ford are sitting on this house. Once we get the new truck back here, we'll have to guard the thing, or it'll end just like the Ford did. Lemme go get my tablet from my pack so I can write this all down."

"You think you can make it up the stairs yourself?", Eirren asked.

"Yeah, I should be fine", I said standing, with some trouble, but not a whole lot. I managed to get up the stairs okay and once I was in the room, I bent down, picked up my belt and took my tablet out of my drop pouch, along with the pills for Nat's radiation. Far from what may animals might think of when they hear the word tablet, my "tablet", was really a vinyl portfolio that I'd modified the front of to hold a compass, a map and a LED book light as well as some other electronics internally. The back had a strap for a radio and another holder for a small sticky note sized piece of paper where I could leave myself small notes. I would never go anywhere without it, period. With it tucked under my arm, I walked back down stairs and sat back down, taking a write in the rain pen from it and clicking it open like I was some kind of therapist.

"So", I joked, "tell me what's been troubling you?"

"That's pretty cool looking", Ben said, "the hell you find that at?"

"I made it", I smiled, "well, had it made for me. Also..", I handed James one of the pills, "swallow that, it'll make you immune to Nat's radiation. Makes life easier."

"So, what are we wanting to do?", James asked swallowing the pill with a glass of water near by, "and what do you think we'll need?"

"The first thing on my mind is accommodation", I said, "that trailer is just as important as the truck. What are our chances of finding what we'll need as far as that's concerned?"

"Oh there must be some supply trailers around the park somewhere", James said, "compressing some regular fiberglass insulation with sheets of armaflex in between them and sealing it all with whatever mastic we can find should be more than enough to keep the thing cool, we have to just not touch it or cut some ply wood to use for walls. After that, we could paint it just to make it a bit more homey, something to help whoever not on guard duty sleep. Because when it's my turn to sleep I want that place as cold and dark as we can get it."

"Okay, so we have the over arcing objective", I said scribbling it down in

"Nat and I could handle that", Ben said, "we'll have access to the most toxic areas of the park since we're sticks of living radiation for all intents and purposes. You, Eirren and James can look for all the tools and supplies we'll actually need to modify the truck and trailer."

"In that case I'll look for Zack's Oxyacetylene rig, plus whatever he think's he'll need to modify the trailer."

"Aluminum welding rods, heat blocking gel, putty, anything to insulate the surrounding area from heat", Zack said, "plus any bits of scrap aluminum you can haul back in case I need to patch things. A working sander and good paper would be nice too, but if you can't find that, some kind of alkaline cleaner and basic kitchen abrasive pads would work in cleaning up residue, which is more important than you might think."

"Since we can't enter the park itself", Shannon said, "we can scavenge the surrounding area for whatever else we might need. Glue, carpet, whatever else we can use to make the trailer ride more comfortable for whoever is camping in the trailer."

"I'll look for a diesel generator and barrels for fuel and water", Eirren said, "and maybe see what I can come up with for a pump we can use to extract and filter water as we go if the opportunity presents itself."

Zack gave her a funny look.

"What?", she asked.

"Didn't strike me as the type to jury rig stuff", he said.

"Can't build shit because I'm a girl?", Eirren snarked.

"That's not what I said", Zack shrugged.

"No, but you were implying it", Eirren insisted, "May not be a master mechanic, but you'd be surprised what I can do if you leave me with nothing but spare parts."

"I'm looking forward to it", Zack grinned, "if you're gonna be looking for water pump parts, I'll see if I can find some long hoses and connectors so we can get it out of hard to reach areas."

"Okay", I said scribbling everything down, "we'll all have to keep eyes peeled for a truck and trailer. See something that looks promising, radio first, don't check it out alone. With the scourged around, it could be trapped."

With everything agreed upon and decided, we began to get ready to leave, as I wanted to cover as much ground as possible before the sun came up. Up in our room, Eirren was on stand by as I got into my fatigues and plate carrier. I de-flagged my AR-15 and Sig, but didn't chamber rounds, not yet.

"Hey, can I ask a crazy question?", Eirren asked checking her AK.

"Always", I said checking transferring some food and water to my Drago Gear three day, which had been rolled up in the bottom of my ruck.

"Why do you keep your chambers flagged?", she asked, "I noticed you do it every night."

"I can't pay attention", I said, "I've disrespected my firearms in the past, and firearms are the one thing in the world that do not tolerate an iota of disrespect from any animal no mater who they might be. Now I flag them so I can be sure they're empty if I'm in a secure area. Second I leave, flags come out and live ammunition goes in."

"Well, I can't say I blame you", she said, "Hunter once disrespected his SPAS 12. I wish I could convey the fear I felt when a saboted 410 steel slug gets out of a 30 inch barrel at 3000FPS and bounces around the room for an entire 20 seconds before landing in a glass of water. Somehow nothing was broken."

"I've never had anything like that happen", I said, "in all the cases of misfires I've personally experienced, the bullet had disintegrated before it could cause too many problems."

Eirren and I went back downstairs, meeting the others out front. I did a head count, we were only missing James.

"Anyone seen James?", I asked.

"Yeah", Nat said, "he was in his room changing. Said he'd be out shortly."

We waited for about five minutes before James showed up. Stepping out of the door, turning to lock it, he had his MK14 around his waist. He turned to face us, keeping his weapon over his shoulder, "everyone ready? I have a feeling we'll be gone a while."

Everyone checked their gear before confirming. With that, we started towards Morgantown.

2:09AM

October 21st,2024

Now, I've seen some messed up buildings in my life, fire, water, ice, wind, they all smash up structures in different ways, but I guess it's safe to say that a detonation of power plant is in a class all it's own. James had explained to us on the way there that it's not possible for me to describe the devastation in Morgantown with a single word. Approaching the city from a distance, burned and rusted cars cluttered the highway which was slowly being buried under a tsunami of sand. In the distance, we could hear the creaking of failing steel towers and the occasional gunshot like crack as more of the old concrete broke free from cooling stacks that still stood. James stopped us on the top of a large overpass that went over the rail way that cut through the road coming directly out of the chemical plant portion of the park. I tell ya man...just looked like a chemical plant had gone up in smoke, typical wasteland bullshit. A plume of black smoke was still rising from somewhere in the plant, no telling what it might be. A rancid smell like rotting flesh and shit had been mixed together stung my nose and made the pain from the scavenger wasp sting somehow come back, forcing me to lean up against the guard rail of the bridge, which was dusted with some kind of material so radioactive that it burned my hands through my gloves. I hissed, pulling my hands away from the guard rails of the bridge, leaning into Eirren to try and catch my breath from the pain stewing in my chest. James peered out over the landscape, using the stock of his weapon to steady himself. We could see a very faint, green hue coming from behind the shadows of what of the plant still remained standing. I swear that on the railings surrounding the various tall structures in the plant, I could see Southern like shadows. They were carrying themselves quite strangely, like their bones were made of rubber or something. In a ruined chemical plant though, I supposed randomly mixing chemicals may cause just that.

"I see some shadows up against one of the smoke stacks", I noted.

"Southerns?", James asked.

"Yeah."

"Probably Scourged", James said, "demons rarely come out this far."

There was a slight pause, he tapped my shoulder and pointed to a faint green glow in front of the moon.

"There", he said, "see that green hue?"

I pulled out my binoculars and had a gander of the area. It was somewhat easier to see with the binoculars, but still rather difficult.

"Yeah", I told him, "I see it."

"That's every toxin you can imagine in the exhaust of a coal fired plant mixed with radioactive sand. Can't take one step inside the perimeter without a gas mask at the very least. If we get caught out there during the fucking day, whoever is won't be coming back."

I continued to survey the area, "why? What's so dangerous in this plant that sunlight is a guaranteed death sentence?"

James stuttered uncomfortably for a moment, "I don't know if it's something about this fucking Smog floating in the air, or if it has to do with the Rabies virus or the Scourged strain or what, but when a Scourged get's caught out in the light, they just liquefy. And...it keeps spreading until the entire Animal has melted...bones and all. But, I don't think they actually ever die."

We all exchanged glances.

"How the absolute motherfuck did you arrive at that conclusion!?", Nat demanded.

"I watched it happen to some Scourged", James said, "was fully covered and layered like I always am, which is what I think what saved me. Remember when I said that I made an error and paid the price?"

"You get caught out in the light?", Nat inquired.

He nodded, "I felt my glove start to sag, so I reached down to fix it and realized my skin was dripping off. So in pure panic, I pulled my sleeves down, hid near the purge vent of a giant chiller until nightfall and then ran all four miles home. It spread for two days before it stopped, was almost all the way up my elbow and I had my arm in plastic wrap to keep my skin from falling off. It's healed rather nicely at least, and it doesn't seem like permanent damage was done. I think being layered, having very minimal contact and running to the shade when I felt it happen was what saved me...but..."

"But!?", Shannon squeaked.

"But fucking what!?", Nat demanded, "James, now's a really good time to tell us what the fuck we're walking into."

James shuddered, "turns out it's not that hard to give a Demon nightmares. I saw this happen to a Scourged. He was hiding under the shade of one of the stacks of processing equipment, and I see this other Animal, looking like another scourged, shambling towards him, all melted and shit. He, or she or it, whatever the fuck, grabbed him from behind, threw him to the ground and started...fucking pouring itself into the Scourged's throat and open wounds. And then this mass of writhing melted and blistered flesh dragged itself into the sun, where after about five seconds I lost track of who was who and ended up with this fucking mutilated pile of bone shards and meat dripping the Rabies virus from every hole in it's body in a foaming liquid."

"Rabies", Shannon sighed, "what the hell kind of bio weapons bullshit got nuked during the war to cause something like that!? Didn't anyone ever tell these animals that Radiation, Chemical Agents and Rabies aren't supposed to be mixed?"

"It's like the shit is trying to spread in anyway it can", Nat said, "being a stick of living radiation, think it'll bother me?"

"You wanna try and find out?", I asked.

"Not really."

"So, basically, we get bit and end up in the light, or this gas, we melt into a puddle of Rabies Virus and look for other animals to infect?", Benjamin asked.

"Essentially", James said, "Now, I'm already infected, so I'm not taking any chances, but seeing as you guys aren't, I can't speak for what will happen as I've only seen this occur in infected Animals. Luckily for us, I think most of our business will take place inside the tunnels and shops of the plant, where the gas more or less is absent. But still."

"So now we have to dance with not only radiation, heat and not being able to breathe, but a gas that lingers over the entire plant that will melt us if we get too close?", Shannon asked.

"Sounds like", Benjamin retorted.

"Why the hell do I still carry a 9mm?", she asked, "am I really that dense?"

"Like a 9mm is gonna fight the gas?", I asked.

Shannon only answered me with a growl. I continued to pan the area with my binos, turning back to James.

"Okay, we need to come up with a game plan here. We can't go running aimlessly around an irradiated chemical plant with a cloud of toxic incendiaries that sets living creatures on fire when it get's hot enough, that does nothing for me. Surely they have maps of the plant somewhere?"

"If I had to guess, the security booth", James said pointing, "down to your right, red brick building with two lane roads on each side, directly to the left of the large office complex."

"I see it", I said, "so step one is to acquire the maps, and from there figure out where the bulk of our supplies can be found, and then go from there?"

"Sounds about right", James said.

We climbed down from the over pass and continued to move towards the plant, just on the outskirts at the entry gate and in the parking lot of a large office building, the geigers spiked and the air began to taste incredibly foul.

"Masks!", James said pulling his over his face, prompting the rest of to follow suit. It had been a very long time since I'd needed to use a gas mask seriously, not since I'd been forced to use the fake one when crossing Medusa's Fog since my regular one was out of filters. James had given me some extra ones, and I was thankful I hadn't followed through on my plans to throw the stuffy thing away, since now I was figuring I'd need it more than this before we got home.

I clicked my rifle's chamber closed. James rocked the bolt of his rifle as well, and I again found myself admiring his build. Turns out the weapon he had when he met us wasn't an M14, but something else all together. James' footed the load out of a WW2 gunner, a BAR and 1911, but with a more modern twist. Both his weapons bore Ohio Ordinance markings. His Heavy Counter Assault Rifle, a modernized BAR, complete with the old BAR Bipod, didn't have a single part that had been spared from modification, from the barrel and trigger down to the intricate texturing on a rotating, twin stage trigger front and rear sights adjustable for 3000 yards with day and night pylons. A heat shield in the form of a Keymod rail encircled the traditional 24.1 inch barrel. A Bravo Company angled grip was lengthened by a piece of polymer of similar size and shape that looked like it had been welded on to increase length and textured to match. His optics consisted of an Eclan Specter DR with a Mini Red dot atop, a Surefire M600AA on the left rail and an AN/PEQ 2 on the top fore end rail. The entire set up carried 20 rounds of .30-06 black tip via very nicely refinished BAR Magazines. You'd have to look to locate it, but like his Barrett, his weapon also had the fun switch, good for safe, semi, binary, burst and automatic. A Surefire suppressor wrapped in a custom cover rounded out his kit, though I doubted it would stay on long.

"Damn that's a nice build", I grinned under my mask as I followed him just inside the plant, going to a security office. Bars on the windows and a door, James tried the bars on the door, loose, but not coming.

"Arien gimme some cover, these bars are loose", he said.

"Got ya. You're covered."

James tried to get the bars to move for another five minutes, eventually back off and putting the palms of his paws on his knees, doubling over in exhaustion, "that's not going to work."

"Jammed?", I asked.

"Something fierce", he panted.

"Let's both give it a try then", I said, "give us cover guys."

"Gotcha", Nat said.

I threw my AR over my back and took a hold of the cage door. James took a few seconds to collect himself and then we both gave the door a try, finding it came off rather easily, sending me falling to my back, good thing too. Hiding just inside the blackened security booth was a Scourged, who lunged out at me as the door came open. Zack spun around, lifting his AK to his shoulder, but James was much faster on the draw, wasting no time in grabbing it from behind and making a quick snack of him, devouring a good part of it's upper torso and left arm in a matter of seconds, while somehow managing not to get a drop of blood or puss on any of his equipment. He threw the limp body to the ground, wiped his maw and helped me up.

"I got ya brother."

"I thought I was a fast eater", I grinned, though I wasn't sure I should, "how the fuck did you do that without getting your uniform stained?"

"Satisfying cravings", James said, "sometimes you just have to make shit work."

"Brutal", Nat commented.

"Arien and I are going to have to go retrieve a specialized weapon before we push any further into the plant. Our target is likely to be guarded by a monster I shall refer to as Goliath."

"Goliath?", Shannon asked.

"A wasteland abomination I'd rather you all not meet. He will kill us all, simple as that."

We stepped inside the security booth. Small thing, with a blood stained mattress and a small, depleted stock of what looked like vending machine drinks and food in a plastic crate at the foot of it. A filling cabinet was the only really notable piece of furnishing in the room other than what you might find in a typical security booth, the desks and computer monitors that watched the entrance. James rifled through the filing cabinet, a small flashlight clenched in his teeth, pulling out a map that had a bunch of things marked on it. We exited the security booth and James turned to the others.

"I'd take up positions in the cars in the parking lot so you have a 360 degree view all around", James said, "we'll keep in touch. I'm only taking him with me because it really is a bad idea for us to all be in this plant for any longer than we have too."

"So where are we headed from here?", I asked.

James studied the map for a moment, pointing straight down a long canyon in between the large stacks of processing equipment, "Down there, Block 1109 Receiving is just beyond the end of this stack. Stick close, if we get jumped, run your gun till the target stops twitching, then nail it twice in the head."

"Why do I get the feeling that rage is directed at something special?", I asked.

"It is", James said, "those putrid, melted bastards live in the gas, 1109 receiving is right behind a cloud of the shit. How good is your trigger finger?"

I shrugged, "I'd like to consider myself reasonably fast."

"May not be enough", James said, "stay close Arien."

I nodded. James took point, he was watching the high ground, as well as trying to lead me through the place while I was watching the ins and outs of the processing equipment. There were plenty of places a hostile could have stashed themselves, I even spied a few places that could have hidden a fully sized Northern. About half way through the stack of processing equipment, James held up his fist, giving me the signal to halt, motioning for us to move into a concealed location at the base of what I guessed was a chiller. He whispered, barely loud enough to be heard.

"Contact", he said, "I can smell 'em through the mask."

"That didn't take long", I sighed pressing my weapon into my shoulder, peering out of our cover and starting to scan around to see if I could see anything. Perking my ears, the only sounds I could hear were the sounds of aged, creaking metal and cracking concrete. I couldn't pick out anything of the ordinary, but James seemed to be very uncomfortable, darting his glance back and fourth between two locations on the ground, behind two Carrier Chillers.

"Behind the Carrier Chillers, end of the alley, see those shadows?", James whispered.

"Yeah I see them, looks like there's a few. Actions?"

"Rush, I'll get the one on the right, you get the one on the left. If I see any Anomalies I'll tell you to break engagement, we have to deal with them in a very specific way. Your call when to move, you were Delta Force right?"

"You got beef Marine?", I asked.

"Time to see how we do things in Force Recon Mr. Special Forces."

James put his rifle slightly down, planting himself firmly in the dirt. I put my paw on his shoulder as he finished checking his equipment, keeping my rifle forward. Soon as James went still, I gave him a slight push on his shoulder. He pressed his HCAR hard into his shoulder as he moved out from behind the chiller stack, I followed suit, doing the same. One of the Scourged that had wandered out noticed James first, letting a low moan roll out of it's throat that alerted everyone of them within earshot to our presence. We raised our weapons at the same time, and I heard his safety click off. He and I both acquired our targets simultaneously, but he was the first to cut lose with what I now learned was a hand held firebreathing dragon straight out of a fantasy novel. The fireball from James' suppressor was about 4 feet wide and six feet long and even out of the corner of my eye I could tell his weapon was viciously over gassed, making me wonder what the fuck his problem was. It was only a brief moment before I opened fire on my target. Within four shots, the Scourged in my sights lay in several pieces on the ground and I was turning to another target. Now, I was looking right at the 1109 building, as well as facing the entire horde, roughly 13 to 15 contacts. James was turning from his kill to assist me as I put the largest one in the cross hairs and ran my gun until he dropped, which turned out now to be a valid piece of advice, because dropping dead was something that guy just didn't want to do. The first five or six of the 13 round volley I sent at him did little more than make him flinch, the next two caused visible damage, the next two and he was showing signs of serious distress and the final ones had him face down in the dirt, plus two in the head. I shifted my aim to the third largest of the group, as James had already nailed the second of the bunch with several rounds. Five shots into the volley, my bolt stopped in the rear. I quickly turned my rifle sideways to check whether it had locked on an empty mag or jammed, empty magazine.

"Cut it!", I shouted to James. I pressed the mag release, dropping the magazine in my weapon from the well, reaching up at the same time to grab the one out of the Redi-Mag, pulled it out, slapped it in place and clicked the chamber closed with the BAD lever on my bolt release.

I dropped down into the dirt, James standing over me while we cut swaths into the slowly shambling, blistered horde. A few of them managed to make it through the storm and get close enough to try and strike, those poor souls instantly caught James' teeth and became quick snacks. By the time the last scourged was dead, all that remained of the writhing mass were dismembered, blistered body parts.

"Clear!?", I asked.

"Clear", James said clicking his safety back on, "thank god we're running suppressed, other wise every Scourged in the plant would have heard us. You okay by the way? You were dragging ass during that fight. Sure that sting ain't bothering you anymore?"

"My bones feel like rubber right now James", I said, "trying to just deal with it."

"You're gonna hurt like a mother fucker the second you stop. You know that right?"

"Course I do, I was one of the lead guys on Operation Lion Seal. Don't talk to me. You see that first guy I shot?", I asked walking up to where his body was piled in a mass of bloody meat, "15 shots before he fucking dropped."

"Yeah, Scourged aren't usually that tough. Ain't no telling what kind of chemicals they've gotten into out here, or what they've done. These aren't the Anomalies though though, just usual trashy Scourged."

"Anomalies?", I asked, "what's that one?"

"What I call the animals that get caught out in the open once the sun comes up", he explained, "Biomass Anomalies, I just shortened it to Anomalies."

"Man I wish the games had been wrong about mutants", I shook my head as we closed the last of the distance to the 1109 building. All of it's doors were closed and tightly locked, we weren't gonna pulling any of these things off their hinges like we did the bars, I couldn't see any other way into the building other than the doors either, unless we wanted to climb up on the roof via some old R123 barrels that were piled up in a few crates in between the two garage doors. James was stacked by the door, prepared for entry. I followed, putting my back against the the wall on the other side of the door, through it, I could hear faint, stomach turning groans and sloshing, like someone was walking around in boots filled with water. James grimaced, smacking his hand against his helmet.

"There's one inside", he groaned aloud, "great, won't this be a fun time."

"How you wanna go about this?", I asked.

"We have to lure it out, and then burn it", James said, "these fucking things are nigh immune to conventional ammunition."

"How you plan to do that?", I asked, "you happen to have incendiaries handy?"

"Actually", James said pointing back to the pile of R123 barrels, "I do. In a sheet metal box up against the wall there's a makeshift flamethrower, I keep 'em scattered around the plant for just this reason, as it's not the first time this has happened."

I walked back over to the barrels, and in the metal crate against the wall that was a bit of trouble to get open was a flamethrower that looked like it was just as much of a danger to the user as it was the target at first glance. It was well put together sure, mostly out of copper piping, some re built chiller water vents, various batteries and gauges of wire connecting to a nitrate ignition on the end that used a sheet metal duct pipe reducer on the end to narrow the jet of what looked like gasoline mixed with motor oil and whatever other fluids were sloshing around in the clear plastic bottle used as a fuel tank. The entire thing was controlled by a light switch and a ball valve near the fuel tank. It looked like it was designed to just literally spray fire from the hip. You'd know if you scored a hit if the target was engulfed in flames.

"Sure this thing will work?", I asked, "seems like it might blow up in my face."

"Always works for me", James said, "Let me show you how to prime that, it's pneumatic."

Turned out the thing operated very similarly to a pump up squirt gun. Once the ignition was warm, James entered the building while I retreated from the door, waiting for him to drag whatever wasteland nightmare was inside out.

"Hey, you big fat ugly motherfucker trying to stain my floors!", James shouted rocking off a few rounds form his HCAR, "Come and get me coward!"

I'll never forget that fucking thing's voice, like someone with an exposed larynx trying to drink water, talk and blow their nose all at the same time, but it spoke with perfectly clear and intelligible English.

"Why would you say that? It's very rude."

"Come do something about it bitch!"

I heard James come running, pausing at the door and then start slowly backing out. There was a horrid squishing and popping sound like what you hear stepping on a water bug in the middle night, but about a million times louder. A mass of disgustingly discolored, flaking flesh with patches of scales and exposed bone that still managed to retain the shape of an extremely disfigured southern, pushed up against the door, pushing itself out of the building, waving tendrils at James and leaving a trail of foul smelling liquid in it's wake. A white foam with the consistency water was spilling and flying from the various open pits in it's body. All of my internal warning mechanisms were going off, Rabies, get the hell away. It was reaching at James as it crawled, or walked, limped, shambled or whatever the hell it was doing, with about six arms that seemed to be constituted from the mass of meat, as the mass became slightly smaller the further it tried to reach. Once it had cleared the door way, I stepped out from my hiding place and without announcing my presence and opened the valve on the flamer as wide as I could. A jet of bright yellow flame flew the 15 feet from the nozzle of the weapon to the back of the creature, immediately sending it up in black smoke and fire. The thing began to scream and wail in agony, bits of flesh flying off it in flames that were quickly consumed. I didn't let up off the flamer, keeping the valve opened as I furiously pumped the air tank to keep the jet going strong. The creatures' screams began to grow louder, louder and louder until eventually it was deafening screech. It began screaming profanities at the top of it's lungs and lashed out in every direction as it very quickly began to turn into black ash, but even though it was engulfed in an inferno like no other, it was _still_trying to get to James.

I stayed on the Flamer until it rolled over on it's...back I guess. Writhing in agony as the roaring flames swallowed it whole, leaving nothing but a putrid black ash and various bits of bone. James sat down where he was, panting as he changed the magazine on his HCAR.

I walked up to the ash pile, inspecting it. He spoke up.

"Now you understand why I hate coming here", he said between his breaths, "damn things are creepy as fuck."

"This was one of them?", I asked, "the Anomalies?"

He nodded, "and there are sure to be more. This was only a small one. Goliath is an easy eight times this size."

"Better put out the alarm then", I said getting on the radio, "all points, come in, repeat all points come in."

"Rodger, Eirren here."

"Benjamin here."

"Nat checking in."

"Zack here."

"Rodger, Shannon reporting."

"James and I just encountered a Biomass Anomaly hiding in Block 1109, that's what he's calling the Scourged that got melted in the light. Keep your eyes peeled, ours was only given away by it's foot steps, like someone was walking in soaking boots. Be advised, our firearms are worthless against them, anyone got incendiaries?"

"I've got two Molotovs on me", Shannon said.

"I've still got a few shots of WP for my M203", Zack said.

"I may still have some of those dragon's breath shells left, not sure", Eirren replied.

"Stick it in the box and call it good for now then", I said, "Arien out."

James pushed himself up out of the dirt with his rifle, "well, no sense in loitering out here any longer, let's get this shit done and get the hell outta this hell."

I followed James inside. 1109 Receiving certainly looked like a plant warehouse. Ceiling high shelves were stacked in rows from a small office up in the front where we were, which also had shelves on top of it, all the way to the back of the warehouse. They were piled up with all kinds of stuff you might find in a chemical plant, tools, cleaners, various chemicals, welding supplies, safety equipment, etcetera. I consulted my list, figured I'd need the Oxyacetylene rig itself, two bottles for it plus some spares, maybe three or four, cleaner and degreaser for the barrels, some solder rods, flux and whatever I could find to clean it up when he was done. I turned to James.

"What you need me to find?", I asked.

"There are four, 55 gallon drums of used motor oil on a pallet", James said, "near the back of the warehouse, bring it up here, our specialized weapon requires it as fuel."

"Gotcha", I said, "Back here in ten?"

"Yeah", James said, "gives me time to find out where I left that fucking Saiga."

I pulled my phone out of my vest and set a timer. With tablet in one hand and my Sig with weapon light on in the other, I paced down the long rows of shelving, shining my light into the ether, looking for what I'd need. About four rows from the back, I found that the row I needed. One half of the shelf was welding, the other seemed to be hand tools, the front half of the second shelf was fasteners, whereas the back was all glues and various other chemicals. Another thing I didn't fail to notice was the Scourged at the end of the isle that had taken a keen interest in my weapon light. From the waist down, he looked like a normal Scourged, tattered rages that barely covered anything, angry red and disgustingly discolored yellow blisters and burns with various exposed bones for good measure, but from the waist up? That was a different story. A layering of Biomass Flesh was cutting across his torso in a huge swath. It that completely engulfed his right side, causing his arm to transform into a piece of long meat that he was dragging behind him. His skull and face seemed like it was half melted and his right eye was nowhere to be seen. Rabies foam leaked from open sores on the Biomass on his arm, shoulders and upper chest and dripped out of his mouth between his elongated, misshapen and misaligned teeth. He had one lagre, broad piece of meat hanging off his back with some bone sticking out that might have been a tail at one point, who knew? Even through my gas mask I could smell...whatever the fuck was leaking out of his eye socket and dripping onto the ground. It made my stomach turn and all of my internal warnings fire on all cylinders. He was having trouble dragging all of the extra weight behind him, but nonetheless, still continued to march towards me, even making attempts to reach for me. His entire body was arched backwards from the weight of all the extra mass on his back. It was easy to see his hips were broken as well, which made me wonder what must be going on inside that mangled looking body to support everything.

Much to my surprise, the Anomaly spoke to me.

"Is...it someone new?"

It spoke with that same deathly gurgle as the last one, yet, it spoke perfectly understandable English, one of the strangest things I think I'd ever seen. I didn't bother to answer, putting my tablet back at my side, I put my other hand on my Sig and fired three rounds. They all struck the Anomaly in the upper chest and neck area, but for whatever the reason, it didn't go down, or even stumble really. I fired three more rounds, this time they impacted the upper neck and head, with one entering through the right eye socket and violently exploding fragments of bone and brain out of the back of it's skull. The creature wobbled for a second or two, but kept right on coming. Three rounds later, there was barely anything left of it's head, it wobbled again, and fell over. I waited for another second or two before getting on the radio.

"Got one", I said.

"I heard. Was it a Scourged or a Biomass?", James asked.

"Both", I said, "looked like the top half was mostly Biomass. Took six head shots and two to the chest before it finally dropped."

"Yeah, most of 'em are like that. How you coming in your search?"

"Starting now."

"Got ya."

I took my tablet back out and tried to ignore the dead body in the middle of the way as I began my search. Didn't take but a few minutes to find those tanks. There were four pallets of silver 55 gallon drums marked "Oil/Spent/Chiller Tower 1146B-K." It was easy enough to grab it with a pallet jack, so that's what I did. There was a Forklift near by, but I didn't have much experience on it and the keys weren't in the ignition."

"This may come as a shock to you but I used to actually like being here", James mentioned over the radio.

"Why is that?", Nat asked.

"Back before the war, this was a nice plant to work in. They had scary ancient units here that were chugging right along in many cases better than the new stuff. We were putting in a new 30 ton split system in Block 1305 and there were four old York Tombstone units from like 1983 that were still in great condition chugging right along for the break room of that block. Was a nice place before they hired that new safety guy."

"What was wrong with him?", I asked.

"He was dumb as a bucket of rocks", James scoffed, "suddenly a bunch of normally productive techs were getting shut down and dragged off the job for the stupidest shit you could think of. There was a Border Collie I worked with that moved his hardhat for less than two seconds to brush fur out of his eyes and the safety guy picked that moment to show up. He instantly began to scream bloody murder like he had just walked in on a satanic ritual consisting of an orgy and the simultaneous murder of several infants. Over adjusting a fucking hardhat."

"Dick", Shannon agreed.

"That he was. He would have put the fear of god into my drill Sargent for fucks sake."

"I would pay money to see that", Zack chuckled.

"Wouldn't we all?", I asked.

Radios went more or less silent for an hour or so after that. In that time, I had pallet jacked the boxes of gas to the front of the warehouse. James had laid out a pretty accurate replica of a WW2 era US Flamer, but the capabilities of this one looked like next level. James currently had tank assembly apart from the actual nozzle part of the weapon, with a vacuum pump, recovery machine, a set of gauges and a normal single use bottle of Calgon RX-11 Flush connected to it.

"What the hell are you doing dude?", I asked.

"Flushing out the tanks from the last use", James said, "it's been sitting up here a few months so I wanted to get it all cleaned up, just pulling out all of the RX-11 at this point."

In the middle of it all, James suddenly stopped glaring at his gauges and he looked towards the door of the warehouse. He did so only for a moment before reaching down to turn off the vacuum pump and recovery machine. He reached over and quietly picked up his HCAR.

"Company?", I asked setting down my tablet.

"I don't know", he whispered, "it knows how to be quiet whatever it is."

James began slowly creeping towards the door. Even though James had dead bolted, locked the knob and padlocked it once we were inside, I could see a single shadow on the other side of the door frame. He or she was a taller animal for sure, and a second movement behind him suggested he had a feral companion with him. James flashed me a two targets hand sign. I crouched down behind the counter, quietly setting my carbine into my shoulder and peering at the door, ready to run it with everything I had as soon as that door opened. James placed his back to the wall, holding the bottom most tip of the stock of his HCAR into a hook on his vest, he made no sounds and went dead silent. We waited for the door to fly open and for the Flashbang that never came. Instead, the shadow vanished mere seconds before the sounds of what was certainly a huge Biomass slithered it's way up to the door and stopped. There was a putrid stench coming from the creature and horrible sloshing sound as the meat shifted around in the pile. I could hear the Rabies foam leaking from the pores on the creature and striking the concrete. I damned the thumping of my heart for betraying our position as I ducked behind the counter to avoid being seen. I heard the door creak open and a gut turning sound as the pile of mangled flesh shifted downwards. A deep, terrifying groan emitted from the depths of the creature as it then began to come inside. The wall of the warehouse shrieked in pain, peeking out, all I could see was a mass of quivering flesh pressed up against a part of the door that had been pushed back, oozing the foaming rabies virus like a sponge as the meat began to slowly push it's way inside. James took a step back, everyone of his teeth were showing and it was obvious that he was summoning all of his willpower to keep from trying to take as much of this thing apart as he could before being eaten himself.

"I know you are in here", the Biomass said. It's voice was that of many animals all speaking at once with the same effect applied to them, exposed larynx trying to talk, drink water and blow their noses all at the same time. It was fuckin' nightmare material.

"Make peace with whatever God you worship James. I will find you", Goliath threatened, "I will consume you and every animal you have brought with you tonight."

I felt my heart stop, evidently James and Goliath weren't on the best of terms. Mere seconds after Goliath threatened James, I heard a distant clang, like someone had thrown a brick against an empty drum. It seemed like, when Goliath decided it wasn't worth checking out, the clanking started even faster until eventually, it was coming like someone was purposely trying to draw him away from us.

"Next time, friend", Goliath hissed, "for now, another seems to require my presence."

With those words, Goliath turned to leave. I waited until I couldn't hear him any more and then stood up. James wasted no time in unhooking the flamer from the recovery machine and vacuum pump and filling it to the absolute top with oil. He quickly pumped up an air tank on the back and threw the flamer over his back.

"We have to move", he said darkly, "he knows I'm here, which mean's he'll be back."

"Was that Goliath?", I asked.

"Yeah", James asked, "he doesn't fuck around either. Get in his way you get eaten, who ever lured him away either is suicidal, or knows exactly what the fuck they've gotten into and exactly how the fuck to get out of it, and I really don't wanna meet THAT animal in this plant out in the fucking dark! So let's haul ass and get this done."

James and I made our way back towards the entrance of the plant. Once there, the others were no where to be found. Instead, I could only see a single red chem-light on the roof of a car.

"Red chem-light", I called into the radio.

"Mine", Zack said, "right behind the car."

"Coming to you", I said.

We found Zack and Nat currently standing guard. Ben, Shannon and Eirren were watching the kids, who were huddled together in the back seat of one of the cars looking terrified out of their minds, like they were afraid to even breath.

"How you holding up boss?", Zack asked.

"Bones still feel like rubber", I said, "could be doing a lot worse. I just had the honor of meeting the single most disgusting thing ever."

"That would be?"

"Goliath", James answered, "an eight thousand pound ball of super dense run away DNA cells that can do shit unlike anything you have ever seen."

"What's worse is that he's got it in for James and has promised to eat him and all of us before we can escape this time", I said.

My friends all exchanged silent glances.

"So, what now?", Eirren asked.

"I don't know my gut says we need to turn the fuck around and cut our losses, but my mind says if we don't accomplish what we set out to do here tonight, we may come to dearly regret it. So, to that end, let's vote. I say we go. If Goliath shows up, well, there's nothing we can't kill."

There was a brief second of silence.

"He's got a point", Benjamin said, "I say we go. We have to have a vehicle."

"Hell to the no", Eirren said, "nothing but a bad idea. We can find a truck somewhere else."

"Gotta agree with Eirren there", Shannon said.

"I vote go.", Zack said.

"Coming from me", James said, "I'm gonna have to face Goliath sooner or later. We go."

"Nope. Bad idea all around", Nat said.

"Hmm...it's a tie. What do you two think?", I asked, looking towards Nero and Mya.

Now, all eyes were on them. The two of them exchanged a quick glance, then Nero spoke up.

"We should go", Nero said.

"Mya?", I asked.

She nodded, "yes."

"Well that's that then", I said.

Without words of protest, we collected the kids and moved towards Block 1450 with James on point. 1450 was an absolutely enormous metal warehouse building with lots of broken windows and even more rust. The block was dead quiet, I couldn't even hear the sounds of a chiller or window unit. Zack and Shannon kept the kids close to them as James brought us in through the back way. Before we entered, he stopped us.

"Hold up, main generator's offline, lemme bring it online, we can't be walking around in here in the fucking dark unless we WANT to give Goliath and edge over us when he inevitably shows up."

James stepped just out of sight. I heard a key in a lock and a bunch of switches before a large diesel generator came to life. James rejoined the group and led us inside. The building was dead quiet and so black that our night vision was giving us a "warning-low ambient light" tag. James turned on his IR illumination and instructed us to do the same. He lead us through the back of the building and to a main office with a computer console. He let his HCAR fall to the side and pressed a few buttons on the console, bringing it online.

"Lemme see if I still remember how to do a start up of this damn building", He grumbled to himself, fiddling with the console.

Eventually, the lights in the warehouse came on. Damn was this place fucking enormous. It was right about 200 feet high with five or six floors with two huge freight elevators to move things between them. One of the elevators still had a Forklift with a pallet full of boxes on it. There were tall shelves filled with all kinds of different chemicals, parts and tools a chemical plant might need. The main thing that caught my eye, however, was at the very front end of the building, and probably the reason that our mystery Animal had gotten us to come out here.

There were three vehicles, a Toyota Tundra, Sequoia and a Dyna U800, this strange thing that existed in a weird purgatory between a full Semi and one of those cabover box trucks they use to deliver bread. The Dyna was also hooked to a full sized box trailer that seemed taller than normal with a Bard Unit on the end facing the rear of the Dyna. From where I was, I could tell that all three were riding on some serious suspension and tread. All three vehicles were painted a crazy shade of matte blue that somehow looked like it would fit right in the vast expanses of the wastelands.

"My work truck!?", James asked in surprise as we exited the booth. That damn thing was impressive, to say the least.

James' work truck was certainly something else. The front grill seemed to have been replaced with metal mesh that would allow greater airflow to the radiator. There was an inter cooler strapped to the front of the radiator, and the headlights looked so overpowered that they could even drown out the daytime sun. The truck had four headlamps that were 8 inches in diameter each with copper mirrors around the outer most edges with LED's placed directly below them, likely daytime running lights. Moving inward, there were a total of nine LED"s in three rows of three with the surface behind them so well polished I could see the threads of my vest in them like a regular mirror. Anyone with even the most basic knowledge of cars could see that the suspension, tires and wheels on James' truck wasn't stock. The tires had some of the most aggressive tread I had ever seen on what still appeared to be for street use and looked like they were made out of military compound. It wasn't difficult to see that the suspension on the truck was intended for brutal off road use. All that combined with the frame and camouflage netting covering the box had it looking like a regular convoy truck.

"Embera Suspension Solutions", James said inspecting his work truck, "what's happened to my truck!?"

While they were checking out the other vehicles and James went through every inch of his Dyna to make sure all of his everything was still there, I looked over the Tundra. It wasn't difficult to tell that the truck had been armored and braced against the heat. The windows were all blacked out, shining a light inside the cab revealed it was black out curtains. The liner in the bed was hard, form fitting rubber and there was a massive deer guard on the front of the truck with a bunch of lights and a winch strapped to it. There was also a roof rack with extra lights all around nicely attached to the roof as if it were factory. I realized during my second pass of the truck there was another index card attached to the windshield wiper. It read.

"Friends, the road ahead is long and brutal. These vehicles will help you save energy, Arien, maybe check the VIN on the Tundra, I think you'll be quite pleased. PS, The Excursion is safe and sound, Will will be getting it back shortly"-A Friend.

"The VIN number?", I asked myself, checking the number etched in the bottom of the windshield, feeling a single tear swell up in my eye when I read it. I put my hand on the handle and pulled the door open. A second tear welled up in my eye. I moved my goggles and wiped it away. Exactly as I left it, only thing that was missing was my stuffed turtle riding shotgun under the headrest. It was an easy fix.

"Arien, you crying dude?", James asked.

I nodded, "yeah, yeah I am."

"Why?", he asked.

"I've been to hell and back with this Tundra", I said, "I...I have some history with it."

"That's your truck?", Eirren asked, "how do you know?"

"The VIN number, I knew it by heart", I said, "it's laser etched into the metal on certain places, nearly impossible to alter. Check out this note."

I handed the note to Eirren. She looked rather concerned.

"That's kinda scary", Eirren said, "look at this guys."

Zack read the note, "yeah....yeah that's fucking terrifying."

My friends went over the note. I threw my AR over my back. Inside the cab, I realized that the blackout curtains simply slid down like visors in the windows and back window, while the windshield one was a glorified sun shield that stuck to the dash and ceiling with some Velcro. I realized now that my truck had a six speed in it as opposed to the Automatic that had come with it, as well as some extra gauges in the cluster, in specific, the fuel gauge which now read "Diesel Fuel Only." The seats had changed too. They were now high sitting bucket seats in a track that supported six point harnesses which still allowed them to adjust like they had the day I'd driven it off the lot. The speaker directly above the radio panel between the driver and passenger sides had been raised up to accommodate a small touch screen and I also noticed that each of the AC vents had small fans just behind the louvers that were controlled with airplane style switches at the bottom of the radio panel. The biggest change, however, was by far the steering wheel. It looked like someone had custom designed it just for me. They had taken the base of a modern Tundra wheel, then gone from there. The bottom was flat like in most race cars and constructed of carbon fiber. Two metal rings separated that from blue stitched tan leather that went up the sides where my paws were likely to be and then two more metal rings separated that from more carbon fiber with shift lights in the top of it. Three green, two yellow and one red. Aside from the steering and upgraded instruments, it was still the same truck that had given 110% since the week before the bombs fell.

"Nice to have this back." I smiled to myself. Almost felt like a weight of my shoulders, even if I knew that it wouldn't last long, especially if that note was to be believed.

"Ari", Eirren asked, "aren't you concerned about this?"

She held the note back out to me.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't", I said, "It's not like I have enough to deal with what with the whole rubber bones shit I've got going on right now. If we got an Animal that's setting us up to knock us down, bridge we'll cross when we get there."

Eirren sighed, though she didn't reply.

"So cross trailer and transport off the list", Zack said stepping out of the trailer, "this thing can sleep six of us at a time and some how manages to have a shower, toilet and sink. I suspect that the extra height is for a water tank. Still a super tight fit, though I suppose that Sequoia is big enough to sleep in if we wanted to. Thank you mystery animal, for now at least."

"We'll have to discuss this when we get home", James said, "So with trailer and transport out of the way, what do we do for water?"

"You said this was the master warehouse right?", Eirren asked as I stepped out of my Tundra.

"Yeah."

"Do you do anything with portable water pumps?", she asked.

"All kinds of shit here", James said, "you'll have to be more specific."

"I was hoping you'd say that, if you'll show me where it's all at, I can put something together here."

"Second floor, isles of shelves marked 4A, take that set of stairs over there in the corner and you'll literally be glaring right at it as you walk up."

Eirren took her AK off her back and took Zack with her to the second floor, James slid out of his truck and closed the door.

"In the meantime, you wanna help me restock my truck Arien?", James asked, "All that's left is my tool bag."

"Yeah I'll give you a hand", I said.

5:09AM

October 21st,2024

James was the kind of animal that always had me rubbing my paws together when I worked at that supply house back home. Whenever someone like him would come in, my brain would start flashing dollar signs and me and my bosses would try and maybe not so subtlety steal the sale from one another. I suspect that the supply house was to James as the army surplus store was to me. James had a list and you had damn well better believe me when I say he was checking that thing thrice. He had at least 2-5 quantity of every Nu-Calgon product I could think of and even some I couldn't on his truck. Seemed like his brands were Calgon, Fluke and Maclo, which this warehouse all had plenty of. He was stocking leak detection, brazing, insulation, fittings, pipe, whole nine yards like he was getting ready to go do a shutdown on a 20,000 ton chiller.

"Do you expect to be doing lots of AC work over the course of this trip?", I asked, "this is a dick load of Nu-Calgon."

"I mean I've always kept a dick load of Calgon on my truck", James said, "but yeah. I've your truck, my truck, the Baby Bard on the trailer to look after. I don't expect them to brake much, but if they do I'll be able to fix it easy. Plus, if we have to stop for an extended period of time, I can get whatever building's AC we stop in running to save us a lot of teeth grinding and colorful language."

"You did say you were self employed", I shrugged, "what were you working under?"

"Mason Refrigeration", James said, "short, sweet and to the point."

"Yeah, I can see that", I agreed.

"Aren't you concerned about the intentions of this animal that left us these trucks?", James asked, "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't."

"Yeah, I am, but like you said, we should talk about it at the house."

"Fair enough", James admitted.

James and I had just finished loading up his truck when Eirren and Zack came back down, she was holding some weird looking, makeshift gadget attached to a dolly and Zack was pulling a small portable generator with a big "Diesel Fuel Only", sticker on the tank. Eirren came down and sat the dolly strapped with mechanical parts down near my Tundra.

"Well it's not much but...well it's not much", She said.

"What exactly you got going on here?", James asked.

"Just whatever 230 volt single phase water pump I could find. I adapted the connections for basic garden and fire-hoses so at least that way if we lose or tear something, at least we have a backup."

"Generator's diesel", Zack said, "so I can cook for it as well."

"I should have enough parts on the truck for you to build one", James said, "I'd make it two parts so whatever has to be heated doesn't have to stay in the bed as I don't want any fires eating through my thirteen thousand dollar box bed."

"I'll have to tweak my design a bit, but I should beable to make a two piece still work", Zack shrugged.

"So we now have everything covered that we set out to cover right?", Nat asked rather matter-of-factly, "can we please address the elephant in the room and, maybe figure out what the fuck we're going do to about our mystery animal???"

"That's better done at the house, let's get outta here", James said, "I'd like to be gone before..."

At that exact moment, a loud CRASH split the mundane quiet of the warehouse. I don't know how close I came to breaking my neck with how quickly I looked towards the sound, but I saw nothing, aside of course from Benjamin throwing a rather full cup of steaming coffee across the room when he went for his firearm and of course the giant, dragon sized dent in the back door of the warehouse.

"Fucker!", James shouted picking up his HCAR, "You couldn't leave well enough alone!"

"Protect the trucks!", I ordered taking my AR off my back, "shoot to kill!"

We all lined up behind the trucks, as soon as that door fell we were going to cut loose. A second crash came, another dent appeared in the door. Benjamin loaded a shell into his M203 and pointed it down range with the sight up.

"Gimme something to shoot at", he mouthed to himself.

The creature hit the door two more times before tearing it from the wall of the building. Standing in the morning twilight, was a single southern. He looked like one of those body builders from the cover of the magazines until he stepped inside. His appearance was one I could only describe as...alien, to put it bluntly, although that may not have been a strong enough euphemism. His body reminded me of what I'd seen in some of the strongest Southern Elephants and his entire form looked like a wall of liquid metal. He had no lips, exposing two rows of long, pearl white serrated fangs that looked like blades from sawzalls. The creature had no discernible eyes that I could see, leaving me to wonder if it was blind or not. The entire mass reeked with a stench so awful that I truly don't have a description for it.

"Hello James", Goliath said. He spoke with only one voice now, his own, presumably.

James didn't answer.

"Masks!", I gagged.

My friends all kept their weapons up as the creature stepped inside the warehouse. The expression on it's face was one hell of a twisted smile. It took four steps towards us and stopped, flexing it's fingers with the sounds of cracking bones.

"You couldn't leave well enough alone could you?", James asked, "you had to show up."

Goliath tilted his head towards James, then shifted his glance towards me and Eirren, then to Eirren. He licked his head with a disturbingly long, dry looking tongue.

"Two? Even better."

It didn't take but a second for me to realize what he met by that, nor did it anyone else.

"Make a move towards those Pups and we'll vaporize you!", Nat shrieked, "I've already lost one set of kids I won't lose another!"

"Is that so?", Goliath asked.

"You'd better believe it!", I shouted, "OPEN FIRE!"

So we did. The 75 yards between us and Goliath very quickly filled with lead as we set upon him with everything we had.

Turns out when James said that the Biomass was nigh immune to conventional munitions, he wasn't exactly yanking chains. I would describe the effect of Soviet 5.45x39 and 5.56x45NATO against this creature has being identical to dropping a frozen pea or a marble into a huge in ground swimming pool, a little ripple and not much else, Goliath just stood there absorbing the shots like they weren't even coming.

"He's not going down!", Shannon barked over the gunfire.

"Firing M203!", Benjamin barked. No sooner did he let the launcher go than Goliath LEAPT across the length of the warehouse and landed right in front of us, Benjamin's grenade landing on the pavement and detonating with a hell of a light show, but not dealing any serious damage to the concrete and steel surrounding it.

Benjamin was the first one to get hit. Goliath nailed him with what barely looked like a half hearted punch and set him flying across the warehouse, crashing into the garage door on the way out. I was the second, taking the blow right to the chest. All of the air instantly left my lungs and I found myself flat on my back with my AR laying across my neck as Goliath grabbed me by the leg and threw me across the warehouse. I crashed into a work bench and rolled across is before smacking my head against another bench, had it not been for my helmet, I would have given myself a concussion with how hard I hit the bench. Literally seeing stars, I tried to right myself, only to end up on my stomach. I no longer had any feeling in my limbs, but did still in my toes and fingers, so I did know I wasn't crippled. I managed to pull myself up using one of the benches just in time to see him pick up Eirren and throw her into Nat who was helplessly fumbling with the clasps on her suit. Now James was the only one left standing. He was foaming at the mouth and his face had turned a scary shade of red. He stood in a pile of magazines and .30-06 brass and the barrel of his HCAR was glowing red as he cast it aside and reached for the Flamethrower. Goliath took notice of this, reached out and took it from him, throwing it across the warehouse and causing it to break apart. Goliath took a hold of James by the neck with both hands and screamed in his face in such away it made my scales crawl. The creature pushed James up against the wall and started slashing furrows into his chest and stomach, cutting his carrier and fatigues into pieces. James didn't seem to bleed, but I know he felt that pain, because every attack Goliath levied served only to darken the tint in Jame's skin. James roared in a way I had never heard before and sank his claws into Goliath's wrists. Dripping Rabies ridden drool from between his teeth, James' pupils narrowed into almost nothing as he pulled Goliath's hands away from his neck. A sickening grin crawled up James' face as Goliath's face contorted and twisted in such a blackened rage I could taste it in the air. James pulled Goliath's arms almost to length, then quickly let go and punched Goliath in the face so hard I heard Goliath's skull crack. Goliath stepped back. James stepped away from the pillar, catching his breath and rubbing the claw marks on his neck. Goliath wasted no time coming back in, throwing his fist right at James' head. James easily dodged the blow and retaliated with a strike to Goliath's face for a second time and then a blow to the right side of Goliath's rib cage, both the blows James landed I heard bones cracking, yet, that didn't seem to bother the monster much, if at all. Goliath kept pressing the fight, trying to use his arm as a battering ram. James ducked, grabbing Goliath's arm and throwing his left fist into Goliath's upper chest, making him spin. James let go of Goliath's arm and put everything he had into a punch into Goliath's spine, sending the monster flying towards the pavement

Goliath landed face down with a bone jarring crunch and a sound like tearing flesh echoed through the room. I would describe what had happened as that scene in Terminator when the T1000 get's thrown face first into a wall than shifts so that he was facing Arnold again without having to turn around. Goliath spun around to get up and went right back in, barreling at James with both arms outstretched and claws extended. James ducked quickly, launching himself upward to grab Goliath's neck and quickly straightened himself, pulling Goliath's neck out by at least a good inch and landing five hits in very quick succession. Goliath however, did manage to intercept James last blow and land a series of vicious counter attacks which left James reeling. I wasn't sure how long the two had been going at it before a particularly hard punch to the jaw had Goliath recoiling. James grabbed him from the shoulders and put his knee right into Goliath's face, picking him up over his head with a roar and throwing him so hard down into the pavement that it cratered it, leaving Goliath in a crater. James bent down, grabbed Goliath's head and with a single savage yank tore it clean from the monster's torso. James roared to the heavens, covered in Rabid spit and Goliath's blood for a good minute before seeming to calm down.

I stood up from behind the my workbench hide, cautiously approaching James, so did everyone else. After about two minutes, James threw the bloody head aside, looking at all of us.

"That's how it goes", he whispered, "a live demonstration."

"That was...a pretty impressive display", Nat commented, "I'm just glad you're on our side."

"Feelings mutual Natalie", James whispered.

"We owe you our lives", Benjamin said.

"No, you don't", James said, "you don't owe me shit. I was gonna have to face him sooner or later. You can only run from someone like him for so long."

"What you mean?", I asked.

"I'll explain later", James said. Eirren put a blanket over him, "for now, let's go home."