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Greenville is second in it's contamination levels in the world. It ties only with the New York City Exclusion Zones and is defeated by the Russian Super City Novochekamensk. Fifty thousand of the cities two million residents managed to survive the war in the Greenville underground, consisting of the Metro and utility tunnels that network much of the city. Now, the residents face the Biomass, growing from the cites sewer system on the daily, the horrific examples that roam the streets above, and the radiation that permeates the very brick and mortar of their safe haven. Their numbers dwindle by the day, as the Firefighters slowly lose the battle against the undead infesting the tunnels.

Eirren Kyvart

12:03AM-Greenville Central Station

Greenville Metro Lines, Texas

"I love you baby girl", Arien's voice trailed off as his body began to go limp. At that moment, any self control that I might have been holding on to completely evaporated. All of the air escaped my lungs in one breath and I started losing it. Utter panic set in as the Gila monster that had just saved our skins pulled me away.

"Stop shaking him!", He shouted, restraining me with a strength I was powerless to fight against, "you'll fucking kill him!"

"Get off of me!", I shouted through the tears that made it impossible for me to see much of anything, Initial instinct was to bite his face off of his head, but some how, I managed to not do that.

The Gila monster, with a shove, pushed me further away from Arien, as two other animals with a stretcher arrived. With help from two of the guards, they loaded him up and disappeared back the way they had come. I shoved the Gila monster out of my way and tried to give chase, only to have two other guards step in front of the door.

"Mam, we can't have anyone in the infirmary who isn't a patient or a doctor."

"Whose going to stop me!?", I asked, reaching for my Beretta, only to feel the muzzle of another firearm against the back of my head.

"Gimme the word boss, I'll drop her."

The only other animal to not have spoken up yet, was the Brown Field Rat on the Browning machine gun. She threw the end of cigarette she was smoking down to the ground and put it out.

"Everyone stand down, this pissing match isn't going to get us anywhere. Cut the girl some slack, her boy did just get stabbed through the chest by a worm."

I turned to face her, she wore only a set of US Army OCP fatigues and had a wreath of stars on one shoulder, the name on her uniform was Morgan, "what's your name kid?"

"Eirren Kyvart", I stated, "what's going on in this Greenvile of yours anyway? The Biomass is running lose here like a kid that's never been told no."

"Of ours?", She asked, "you state that like you're not from here....what's your station number, and whose your commanding officer?"

"Did my accent give it away?"

"Just tell the boss what station you're from kid!", the animal who had put the gun to my head stated.

"You idiots! Do I sound like I'm from your godforsaken city!? I'm from Canada! The mate's from Brazoria, and he IS my commanding officer."

The animals all exchanged glances, a few of them grinned widely.

"Canada!?", the rat exclaimed, "you're from Canada!?"

"Holy shit!", the Gila monster laughed, "that means we're not the only ones left! That means Tom's right!"

The Rat took a moment to collect herself, "that means we're not doomed to spend the rest of our lives in this hell hole...Tom's going to want to hear this..."

I rubbed my face, and then a thought popped into my head. I managed to regain some of my composure, "okay...whose Tom?"

"Tom is Mayor 'round these parts", the Gila monster said, "he was elected right before the bombs fell, and some of his polices are why we can even live down here right now."

"He's been absolutely convinced since the beginning of the year that there must have been other survivors out there...somewhere", Morgan continued, "said he heard some signal on the radio. Everyone thought he was full of shit...he's going to want to meet you as soon as possible."

"Until someone tells me if my Arien is gonna walk out of here with me, I'm not telling anybody shit about who I am, how I got here or why I'm here!"

"Alice would have taken him back to surgery", the Gila monster said, "she treats worm stings better than anyone, I'm sure he'll be on his feet within a few hours, depending on his healing factor."

"That infirmary is overrun with slime and worms...is it not?", I asked.

Morgan raised an eyebrow, "how did..."

"We found a phone...someone by the name of Roberto left it unlocked, we found text messages between him and Alice, she said the infirmary was overrun with slime."

"Until a few hours ago it was", Morgan said, "he took care of that this morning."

"So no slime, worms, or any of the other shit I saw in your tunnels?", I asked.

"No mam. You have my word on that, Roberto is a hell of a firefighter, and Alice is an even better surgeon. He's in good hands."

"I don't know if I trust you yet", I sighed, crossing my arms at my chest.

Morgan shrugged, "guess you don't have to. Now, follow me please, Tom's going to want to meet you."

I took a deep breath, and, trying not to die from worry, I followed Morgan through the tunnels. She lead me through the same door that Alice had taken Arien through and then to the station. It was a huge, open six terminal subway station with at least a thirty foot high ceiling. Buildings made out of solid concrete hung over the rails, I could see many animals through the well cleaned glass, some eating, mated pairs dancing, and kids running passed the windows playing. Directly left of where Morgan had led me in were six Union Pacific locomotives that looked like they were currently undergoing maintenance, as technicians had a few of them ripped apart. The chatter inside the station sounded like...well, like a city ought to. I could hear laughing, kids playing, music and passed more than a few stores as Morgan lead me through the station.

"It's...like a snapshot of the old world", I mumbled, and apparently Morgan heard me.

"Yeah", she said, "the only place in Greenville that Animals are really safe anymore, as long as our Firefighters can stay alive."

"Firefighters", I inquired, "those guys that roasted the worm behind us?"

"Mhmm", Morgan nodded, "specially trained to hunt the Examples in the tunnels, and to burn the slime off of sensitive Metro systems."

"I can't believe this", I sighed, the reality of the situation was really starting to sink in, "and you guys are just...trapped in these tunnels with those things?"

Morgan sighed, "well, a lot of the boys argue that the worms are shut in here with us. We've got one guy that lives to hunt the shit that lives in these tunnels. But everyday the worms thin our ranks, and for every firefighter we lose, it'll be years until we can replace him. If you ask me,I think the worms will wipe out most of our stations in a couple years time. Even our Firefighters are only capable of so much, regardless of what their children might tell you."

"So...how long have you guys been down here?", I asked.

"Since the bombs fell", she explained, flashing her badge to a security guard at another door.

"Welcome Major", the guard opened the door, "Jack radioed ahead, said you might be coming. Tom's waiting in his office."

"Thanks Sargent", Morgan saluted and then lead me through the door into a hallway. As she lead me through, she continued.

"So Eirren..what brought you to Greenvile? And from Canada no less?"

"Arien", I explained, "you see, he picked me up about a month ago, and we've been traveling together ever since. He's done nothing but help animals and save lives since I met him, which is part of the reason we're mated already. We just made it to Houston a day or so ago, and, through a rather complex series of events, we attracted the attention of a scientist living on the river. Turned out there was a group of psychotic mercenaries terrorizing the survivors in Houston. Boiling them alive and all that. We couldn't get out of the city without them catching us, so he made us a deal. He was going to get us a landing strip, and a meeting with the only other group of animals who could solve that problem and in exchange, we help them take out the mercs. Then, we found out there was a stupidly powerful radiation storm coming. We came out here, because supposedly there's a cache of medicine in the basement of the Medical Research Center. The plan was to get in, grab the medication and book it back to Houston before the storm it...of course....it didn't work out that way."

"The MRC?", Morgan asked, "yeah...there's no medicine there. There's never been any medicine there, that cache got moved by the federal government two weeks before the bombs hit to the other side of the city. We've sent over a dozen firefighters to try to recover it, none have returned."

Fuck. Me. Sideways. I stopped in the hallway, a dozen thoughts went through my head. How the fuck was I supposed to get it alone? Without Arien, James or Anthony? All I had was my sidearm, Arien's suit was shredded and I doubted I could get any radio contact with my team with all of this radiation around. So...the fuck was I supposed to do now. Exactly?

"Eirren?", Morgan asked.

"So...I assume that means I'm screwed?", I asked, "and all six hundred animals back on the dock...they're what...they're just gonna fry? All of this was for nothing?"

Morgan straightened her posture, her tone was one of confidence, "Eirren, if there's one thing I learned since the bombs fell, if you give Tom a problem, no mater how hopeless it seems, he can, and will, find you a solution. Don't give up just yet, let's see what he has to say."

Morgan lead me down the long hallway, with several doors that branched off it. About thirty feet or so down, it took a right turn up a flight of stairs. We passed more offices, took another turn and then passed through a hallway that dead ended in a fancy, windowless wooden door with a fancy, polished plastic name plate that read "Office of Greenville Mayor, Thomas Jackson." Morgan knocked on the door.

"Tom."

"Please come in Morgan, it's open."

The room was comparable to my penthouse, at least in décor. The walls were wooden panels on the right and left hand sides that were multiple pieces made of scrap wood that was held together with a darkly stained resin. In each corner were fat trunked, short trees with bushy, well kept tops kept alive with lights directly above them, that was the only light in the room. The carpet was dark red, almost looking like it was hand made. The right side of the room had a huge king sized trophy bed with brand new looking bedspreads. The left side panel was a weapon that was home to two complete weapon sets, full ballistic and full energy. In the middle of the room was a desk with a tall backed chair facing the back wall with a Texas Flag that looked like it must have been salvaged from a building near by. The only thing I could glean from the situation that whoever was in the chair was a Bald Eagle. Morgan and I sat down, her on the left, me on the right. Without turning around, he began speaking.

"When it has been years since we've heard anything but static and white noise on the radio, it becomes difficult to believe that you and yours aren't alone on this Earth. Who was to say that, save from us, who managed to hide from the wrath of God in our cites underground, that were were any survivors of the final world war? My mate, my friends, my comrades from the Fireteams. They all tell me the same thing, Animals were wiped out, and the Earth was burnt to a crisp. Here in Greenville, its common knowledge", he turned around, grinning just about from ear to ear when he saw me, "but I did hear that signal on the radio. Yes, it was immediately drowned out by the radiation, but I heard it. I knew that it must have been from a survivor...somewhere. I knew that when I heard that brief crack of someone's voice from the other end of that radio, somewhere out there must have been clean. And you...you are proof."

I wasn't sure what to say. The eagle leaned back in his chair.

"Why don't we start from the beginning?", he asked, "I'm Thomas Jackson, welcome to Greenville. Who might you be?"

"Eirren Kyvart", I answered.

"What brings you to Greenvile mam?", he asked.

I sighed, wondering where I should start.

"My team and I came here looking to salvage supplies from the MRC. There's a serious radiation storm that's closing in on Houston Texas and the animals where we were based don't have enough medication to weather out the storm. Morgan tells me though that the supplies haven't been in the MRC since before the war?"

"That's correct", Tom stated, "the federal government moved all that from the MRC to the Texas Emergency Provision Stockpile. I've been trying to get Animals out there to raid it since the last bomb hit the city. Everyone either gets eaten by the Biomass, or dies of radiation sickness before they can even reach the bunker, much less get inside. It's one of if not the most toxic places in the city and...hell, maybe the world."

"That puts a damper on things", I sighed, "my team's got six hundred lives riding on this."

Tom rubbed his face, "Eirren, I understand your situation. I really, really do, and I'm sorry you've been dealt the hand you have. But we've lost dozens of soldiers trying to break into that bunker, if you think you'll succeed where they all failed, you'll become another statistic. I wish I could spare you the medicine you needed, but our reserves are stretched thin as it is. Even if you could get there, you'd need a semi trailer or a cargo plane to get all the medication out."

"Cargo plane you say?", I asked, "well..what about a Russian cargo platform gunship?"

Tom leaned in, placing his elbows on his desk and propping his head on his balled up hands, "I'm listening."

"About a week or so ago, we joined forces with a group of Russian soldiers, they call themselves Rhino Crew, and we've been doing groundwork for them. They have a plane with a hell of a cargo bay, and to top it off, the plane has some pretty wicked fangs. If I could get a signal through to their commander, I can have them fly the plane, pick us up, and then we can grab the medicine, and drop it to you by the pallet. Can you think of anyway that I can get a signal from a satellite phone to go through?

Tom leaned back in his chair, trading glances with Morgan, "I can provide you with the exact location of the EPS, but..this gunship. Is it radiation shielded? As I said, EPS is located in one of the most radioactive and toxic areas in the city."

"That I couldn't say, but our trucks are. We parked Arien's Tundra in the MRC's parking lot. On the inside our Geiger's were all in the green. We've got towing capacity, we can just tow it to a safe landing zone, load it up and drop it to you. Minus our cut of course."

"The only place that I could think of is the old KLRTV tower", Evan said, "it's like a mile high, reached above the clouds. It's only like six blocks from where we are now, the issue is..."

"The lobby collapsed years ago", Morgan said, "the only way in is through a sky scraper next to it that has a crane laying across the top, you'll have to walk across it to get to the top of the tower. Above the clouds, you might beable to get a signal, assuming your sat phone survives that long."

"I've got it tucked away in a shielded case", I said, "now, what do I have to do to get my hands on some weapons? All I have is my pistol, and I doubt you have anything chambered for four gauge industrial Kiln shot."

"Can't say that I do, but we have something our gunsmiths cooked up to issue to our guys down in the deep tunnels. Ms Morgan, take Ms Kyvart to the armory. Give her one of the AR-500s, and whatever else she wants. Let her see her mate too if she so wishes. I'll let Alice know you might be dropping by."

Tom picked up the phone as Morgan and I turned to leave, "oh...and Eirren?"

I turned back to face him.

"A lot of animals need that medication. It'll be on you now. Godspeed, and good luck, to you and your team."

Morgan lead me out.

"I can't believe you're crazy enough to try and climb the top of that tower", She said.

"I don't have a choice. As much as I hate his stupid ass for dragging me out here, Arien's right, six hundred lives is too many to just sit around on our asses and let die. Even moreso when you're actually capable of pulling off what's needed. In hindsight, we should have just let Ben and Nat take care of it, but then, we never would have found out where the EPS actually was. We could have ended up back at the dock empty handed, and I can guarantee Arien would have lost his shit if we got down to that vault and only found rusted medical equipment."

"It sounds like this Arien is quite the catch", Morgan smiled.

"Yeah...he is. I just hope his dumbass doesn't pay with his life for trying to help someone else out."

"Alice will take care of him", Morgan assured.

She lead me across the station, through all the bustling crowds of animals trying to go about their day with a semblance of normalcy and eventually lead me to the armory, where two more large males were standing guard.

"Howdy commander Morgan", one of them saluted, "shouldn't you be home with the mate?"

"Yeah", Morgan said, "I'd like to be, but what's going on right now takes priority."

The guard opened the door, "yes mam."

Morgan lead me inside. The armory lay out here was similar to the one back on Evan's dock, but this one was much bigger, and full of M4's, M16's and M14's. There were a couple of SCAR-H's, an M249 SAW and a Barrett 50, but the biggest standout was a rack of guns that all looked identical.

It seemed to be a hybrid of the AK and the M4. The gas system was an AK gas piston if I'd ever seen one, the stock was a Magpul UBR that folded off to the left side, and it had a side rail to mount optics, but it also had a picatinny rail that ran the full length of the weapon. The handguard was two pieces, or more accurately, an MLOK lower handrail that bolted to the top picatinny rail to help cover the integral suppressed, 18.5 inch barrel, which had quite the muzzle opening. Morgan took one off the shelf and handed it to me. It wasn't any heavier than my AK, but, my AK had a lot of attachments on it, this was bare.

"AR-500", she explained, "it's a combination of the AKM and the M4A1. We developed it specifically to fight the biomass in the tunnels, and it's typically only issued to our best Firefighters as the ammunition isn't easy to produce or scavenge. but it should more than suffice to get you to the top of the tower."

"What's it chambered in?", I asked.

"12.7x41mmSR", she said.

"Never heard of it", I clicked out the empty magazine, it rocked and locked into the magwell much like Kalash variants, but with almost zero play. For being a post war design, it was quite well put together.

"You might know it as .500 Smith & Wesson Magnum", Morgan said, "We found about six months after the Biomass showed up that regulation M4's and shotguns were combat effective if an Example was mostly still the animal it used to be. Naturally, the 5.56 lost a lot of it's stopping power as the examples got bigger and bigger, and then the worms showed up. Well, one of our guys discovered fairly quickly that when it comes to the biomass, you really want as big and heavy of a bullet as possible that hits like a dump truck. Ergo, this fully automatic, integral suppressed sub-machine gun. Only the biggest masses can really stand up to the withering fire this bastard can deliver, assuming you can keep it on target."

"That bad huh?", I asked reinserting the magazine..

Morgan reached behind the counter and took out a brown box that was marked, "32 cartridges, 12.7x41mmSR (500 S&W Magnum) 700 grain hardcast". She reached inside a box and pulled out a bullet which looked like a revlover cartridge, but may as well have had a shotgun slug loaded into it. She handed it to me.

"700 grains of pure lead moving at 2400 feet per second out of our 18.5 inch barrel. It'll spit all thirty two rounds in about, mmm, a second", she said, "it takes a load of practice to hit anything with it. Thus, why all our ammunition is cast lead. Easier for the scavengers to keep what little ammunition manufacturing we have stocked."

"Not bad", I shrugged.

"Tom said to give you whatever you want, so, tell me what you think you'll need to climb the tower, and I'll get you set up."

"First and foremost, I want a suppressor, best one you can manage. Gonna need a magnified optic", I said, "if you have a Sig Sauer Tango6T Scope, with a Trijicon RMR mounted up top, I want it, if not, the scope alone will be fine. I want a Magpul RVG, I want some kind of weapon light, I need a PEQ-15 so I can mark targets for the gunship, I want eight plus one magazines, I'm gonna need pouches, medical, I'd like four grenades if possible. I want rappelling gear, so I don't fall to my death on the way up."

Morgan disappeared with the Armorer after taking the weapon from me, leaving me alone in the front of the armory. I leaned on the counter, Arien crept back to the front of my mind. He'd been stung by that wasp, shot by that guy with the slug gun, walked through Medusa, and who knew what else before I met him? I felt like I might lose my mind, and the thought did occur to me that I could very well die on the top of this tower, get gobbled up by a Biomass, or get so horrifically irradiated that I might just become an Example myself. With how rotten my luck had been before Arien pulled those rapists off me, I wouldn't get the same blessings James did. There was so much more riding on this now than there had been. I spent six months in the Canadian Army near the ass end of the war, and maybe a month of that had been spent in the field under combat conditions. Arien was Delta Force, Shannon was in Bapan, Zack spent time in the Western Trench, Nat and Ben were Ghosts, and James was a Demon, sharing his body with a Biomass Example. Me? What was I? Just some kid who liked AKs, scared to death of what she was about to do. Scared to death I was gonna leave Arien behind, just like Mark left me. I had all of Dock 41, and all of the Greenville Metro in my hands now. Everything relied on getting hold of Truck, and from there, well I guess I'd figure it out if I had to.

Morgan came back about thirty minutes later with my new rifle and chest rig which fit over the armor carrier on my radiation suit, albeit rather snugly. As I was strapping it on, Morgan handed me one of those orange Russian medical kits.

"Here, take this too."

"What's it for?", I asked.

"Radiation meds", she said, "take it if you start to feel dizzy."

"Not necessary, my rad suit is armed with some really hardcore experimental shit, it administers it through the respirator when the radiation in my system gets too high."

"Yeah well, Triamidol is proven to work, so take it anyway, just in case."

I accepted, placing the case in the medical pouch, "okay...well. I guess I have a tower to climb. I'd like to see Arien before I set out...just in case he survives me."

Morgan lead me out of the armory without another word, across the station to the hospital, where she flashed her ID to the guard.

"Evening Morgan", he said, "I'm sorry but the hospital is closed."

"Tom radioed ahead, I have Eirren Kyvart with me", she said.

"Of course, one moment", the guard closed the hatch and opened the door. The hospital was perhaps as clean as it could be for it being underground, and it at least did seem to be purpose built. It was quiet for the most part, but some pained moans did escape from some of the animals we passed, a few of which almost looked like they'd been butchered.

"These animals look butchered", I commented, "this looks deliberate. Like their attackers just wanted them to suffer for as long as possible."

"That's what the worms do", Morgan said, "they mutilate, cripple, maim. Rarely do they go straight for the kill. I've heard talk that the sadistic things enjoy it. I have a hard time not believing it sometimes."

Arien was at the back of the hospital. When I saw him, I had a hard time not loosing my shit again, because it was hard to find him underneath all of the gauze, wires and tubing. The doctor who had carted him off was current adjusting something in his IV when we arrived.

"Alice, I have his mate here."

"Misses Kyvart", Alice addressed, "please don't panic, he's going to make a full recovery. He's on some medication where he might be asleep for a day or two, but his healing factor is more than strong enough to pull him back."

I walked to the opposite side of the bed and sat down, reaching out to put my hand on his forehead. He may as well have been on fire.

"Morgan and I will give you a minute", Alice said herding Morgan out of the room, closing the curtains behind us. I took a deep breath, and stayed silent for a moment.

"I'm about to do something really fucking stupid Arien", I sighed, "I dunno if you can hear me, but if you can...there's an entire city down here. Fifty thousand animals live in these tunnels, and they're in the same situation that Evan and his are in. There's no medicine in the MRC, it got moved. There's this Tom character, he's going to give me the location of it and I'm going to do my damnedest to ring up Truck and make a new plan. The stakes just got a whole lot higher, so now I get to climb to the top of a mile and a half tall tower to try and call Truck. I know I said not to play hero...but I don't have a choice. Hang in there Arien, we'll get this done."

I stood and stepped back outside the curtains, finding Morgan and Alice had been standing there the entire time.

"You shouldn't eavesdrop like that", I told them, "I might be in your house, but that was fuckin' rude."

"Sorry", Morgan said, "Do you need anything else from us before you set out?"

"I don't think so, other than the EPS location."

"Tom will give that to you when you head out."

"How far is it to that tower?", I asked.

"It's like a half a mile hike", Morgan said, "used to take ten minutes from here, it'll be marked on the map. Of course, there wasn't the risk of being eaten or frying in radiation either. I hope that fancy rad suit you're wearing is as good as you say."

"Got me into Greenville and it got me through your tunnels, not to bad for a prototype."

Morgan and Alice lead me back through the station, during which Tom came over the intercoms.

"Attention, residents of Grand Central Station, this is your Mayor speaking. At this time, I am asking everyone to return to their homes and await the all clear, as the station airlock is going to be cycled. Again, please return home, and await the all clear."

Morgan lead me up to a large, heavy looking utility door. Inside the small room were two gun emplacements, another browning M2 with a flamethrower attached to it, and beside that there were twin M134 Miniguns, both sets pointed towards a large steel door that looked like it must have been a foot thick. It was painted in bright red, with two, huge nuclear fan symbols on it with wording that said "WARNING, LETHAL EXTERNAL RADIATION, CYCLE AIRLOCK ONLY WITH REAR DOORS SEALED!" The two animals on the gun emplacements turned back to look at me, as Morgan and Alice stepped out, sealing the two huge utility doors behind them.

"So you're the one Tom said was coming", one of them said, handing me a rolled up map, "EPS location is on there. The route to the old TV tower is marked there too. Good luck."

I took it, "thanks. Maybe now I have a shot at salvaging something from this mess."

"You're braver than I am lady", the other guard said, "going to the surface automatically means you've got a bigger set than every male here."

"Dude...I'm about to piss my pants. The Biomass scares me enough on it's own, and that's when I have my team backing me up. I can't believe you all live down here like this. I'd go crazy knowing what I know is in those tunnels is so close all the time."

"It's certainly no cakewalk", the guard on the M2 said putting a gas mask on, "but then again, you going up to the surface like you're about to makes me think you really don't give a flying fuck about how hard something might be. Holden! Cycle the damn gate, let's not keep the crazy Canadian waiting!"

The other guard hit a large red button as I buttoned up my suit and turned it back on. The massive airlock doors shrugged, and opened with a grinding sound. Sparks of harsh green and yellow began to fly into the airlock along with the radioactive ash being blown in by the windstorm that seemed to have been whipped up. The guard only opened the door wide enough for me to exit.

"Go! Now!", the one on the MaDecue shouted over the howling above us, "good luck!"

I stepped out of the airlock into the stairwell leading above ground. The airlock doors shut behind me. I shivered, the gravity of what I was doing set in as I chambered a round of that 700 grain hardcast into the weapon and took the safety off. I may have felt like I was on another planet as I ascended the broken down escalator to the top, coming above ground with my weapon in my shoulder as I checked all around me. The wind was howling loudly, but the cackling of a few examples that were in the lobby of a near by building is what gave them away. Why would they be quiet? I was in their house now, and perhaps I was an uninvited guest. I couldn't make out what they were saying over the wind...but they seemed like they were having a fairly normal conversation. Their lives before the war, dozens of different voices speaking one at a time, conversing among each other. The feeling from silently shuffling past them in a side step can't be described. I ascended the stairs, taking great care not to make a bit of noise. Clearing the top, I peered into the building, I could see three examples, two feral with multiple heads and limbs, along with one that was much more mass like. They were gathered around a fire burning in a barrel, seeming like they might have actually enjoyed each others company, you could claim Examples were many things, they weren't stupid. I gave them a wide berth, I was out of the fires influence. I crossed the street and ducked into the lobby of another, single story building that seemed mostly caved in, thankfully, the Nods James gave me were shielded, or just not bothered by the radiation, so clicking them on revealed the entire room to me. I stopped behind the front counter of the small drug store, set my weapon against the corner and unrolled the map I'd been given by the guard. According to it, the Tower was in one of the most toxic zones in the city, eclipsed only by the EPS itself, which was on the other end of the city. According to the legend, roads marked in red were impassable, in blue, passable by foot, green by small cars, and black were un-obstructed. I could only see one route to the EPS that followed un-obstructed roads. I would have to walk back to the MRC to get Arien's Tundra, and that was a good five mile hike. How was that possible? Had we really wandered that far through the tunnels? I'd figure that out later. From where I was, it would maybe be a five minute hike to the tower, assuming I didn't get attacked by the Biomass.

As I rolled up the map, as if on cue, I heard something at the front door. The frame of the building squeaked in disapproval as the example pushed it's way into the lobby. I stuffed the map back into my rig and poked my head up above the counter. There was a huge, fucking scary looking Biomass standing in the door way. It wasn't like the other examples that I had seen in the past, rather, it looked like a bunch of different animals that had stayed mostly intact, had been stretched out beyond what they should be capable of and then merged together. Vestigial body parts flailed and hung off of it like hair and, while the creature had no primary head, it did have a gash in it's torso that was lined with teeth with a long tongue hanging worthlessly out of said gash. It was drooling like a rabid dog that hadn't eaten in a few months. It stood there, scanning around the room.

"Somebody new is here", it beckoned in a chalcedony of about 40 voices. It stepped inside the doorway, heading right for me.

"Okay...", I thought to myself, looking for something I could throw to get it to go anywhere other than towards me. I ended up grabbing a glass bottle off the desk and throwing it into the opposite corner of the room. The bottle shattered with quite the racket, immediately catching the Examples attention.

"You mustn't break the glass in other's homes. It's quite rude", about six of them said as the Biomass moved with such a speed to the corner of the room and smashed through the desk that I did, in fact, come very close to wetting myself. I went seven different kinds of cold, wondering how I was going to get out of this building alive, much less make it to the top of the tower. I grabbed another bottle off the table and started trying to sneak my way over to the door, maybe was about halfway there when the biomass turned around and looked right at me. I froze right there, wishing I could melt into the floor. It glanced around, seeming as if it had lost me.

"Where did you go?", four of the voices beckoned, it seemed agitated, "you can't hide from us forever!"

I threw the other bottle I picked up, it went over the examples head and landed behind it, shattering loudly enough to divert it's attention for the second time. While it was distracted, I bolted out the door, crossing the street again and darting through an alley way between two buildings. Now, I could see the radio tower. It was maybe only a few blocks out. I could hear all kinds of Biomass between here and there. This city must have been totally full of it. I cursed the South Americans under my breath as I attempted to navigate through the horde of the creatures that was infesting this city. ZR-5's plus Nukes, plus whatever else had gotten lose in this fucking hell on earth post war. Evan had called this a dead zone, and in a fucked up sort of way, he wasn't wrong. This city was, in fact, ruled by the dead, and they were making my objective here quite difficult. One in particular was blocking my way out of the alley way. It appeared to be a mostly intact, Southern female wolf, and she was barely a puppy from her short stature, barely three quarters of my height. She had a mass that was wrapping around her upper chest, neck and the lower part of her head, similar to the one that we had seen while scavenging the base the day we had met Anthony and his team. It had also grown all up and down her right side, collecting a bunch of extra material that surely wasn't native to her body, it surprised me with the growth, she was able to move at all. All her joints were massively inflamed, veins and arteries were both visible through the puffed up, reddish white necrotic tissue. She stood stiffly in the exit of the alleyway, her posture slightly canted to favor her left side, since it seemed the least swollen. What of her body wasn't covered by cancerous tumors and abscesses, was covered in radiation burns that looked like they had healed and re burned a hundred times over. The radioactive ash fell from the sky and settled in her open sores, she didn't seem to notice. She stood there, gazing off into the sky, searching for the sun, according to her.

"Mister sun, how come you never come to visit any more? All we have is this dirt that falls from the sky, it's not even pretty. Not like you are. Will you come visit soon, I get cold without you."

The poor thing reached out and groped the air in front of her, like she was trying to paw away the clouds so the sun could come visit her. As horrible as I felt, she was blocking my way. There weren't any rocks or cans around, and if I tried to use the rifle, every Biomass in the city would be up my ass, which just left my combat knife. As quietly as I could, I drew the blade from it's sheath, holding my rifle with my off hand so it wouldn't make noise as I got close. Within grabbing distance, I reached out, grabbed her snout and held it closed.

She started squirming and fighting, trying to shout out to the six other masses I could see through the goggles that she was being attacked. I would too.

"Shush little one", I whispered to her, plunging my knife deep into her neck, drew it back and sliced outwards. The knife, being as sharp as it was, sliced through everything vital you might find in a neck as well as the growth with ease. She fought for only a second, the blood stopped flowing as quickly as it started and she went completely limp. I gently lay her down, crossing her arms at her chest, "you don't have to be cold any more. Go see the sun."

I cleaned the knife and put it back in it's sheath. Peeking out from around the corner, I waited for the closest example to displace before I slipped out from behind the alleyway. I could hear the Biomass talking with each other. Two of them, southern critters of some sort, caught my attention immediately. The one closest to me, a gator or croc given what I could still make out, had pulsating tumors all over his torso and two tendrils hanging limply out of his shoulders, either they were just added mass, or other limbs he wasn't using at the moment. He only wore tattered shorts, and his legs above the knees looked mostly normal. Below his knees were all swollen and covered with writhing abscesses and tumors, some of which were meat, and some of them looked plant based, shaking loose a fine powder with every step. He only had one arm, and below the elbow it ended in a long, bony mass that looked like it was only useful as a club. Above his elbow was full of thick, root like tendrils that laced through his flesh, some of them had small sprouts coming out of them. Wondered if he had gotten into some kind of green house and picked it up there?

The other one looked like a canine of some kind, given what looked like sparse fur covering his body. He had a lot more plant like material on him. Some kind of fern was growing out of a tumor that wrapped around the left side of his body that, based on what I could see through the night vision, looked like the underside of the mushrooms that grew on rotting logs. Tendrils wrapped through the flesh on both his arm that, from here, looked like they were covered in thorns. He only had one hand, the other ended what looked almost like a tree branch, which was growing what looked from here like oranges, albeit, wrong looking oranges.

"God that's so fucked up", I thought to myself, slipping between two cars and hiding behind an sold school bus as I began to make out more of their conversation.

"Can we be done now?", the one closest to me asked, speaking in roughly ten voices that I could pick out, but one was clearly the dominant personality, "It's after midnight and I wanna go to sleep."

"You're not sleeping until we're done. You're the one who let those underground fuckers run off with all our gas and I for one do not want to spend any longer out in this cold than I have to", the further answered, only one voice, implying he was still mostly the animal he used to be.

"It's like 50 degrees", the one closest to me commented, "you've got me out here for no reason. It's not like the underground dwellers come out here and no other masses are going to attack you. Plus, I'm of literally no use to you. I don't have any hands."

"You fell asleep on duty, you're the one who let those underground fuckers kill our friends and steal our gas you dumb motherfucker. I wish they had killed you instead! The others didn't deserve to burn like they did! You do! Suffer!"

"Fuck you Gary."

"And fuck you all too!"

Besides James, these were the first two masses that had been able to speak in a complete sentence that was something other than a threat. Seemed to me like Tom's Firefighters had paid them a bit of a visit recently. Obviously they were still on edge from losing a few of the examples that they shared a nest with, so I made sure to give them a wide berth, because they'd almost certainly assume I was a Firefighter if they saw me, it would be doubly bad if the little girl I'd just killed was associate with them in any way. I managed, with some difficulty, to sneak by the remaining examples in the street, past that, I didn't run into any more in the two blocks I traversed to reach the building with the crane collapsed onto the radio tower. Maybe I was beginning to contract radiation sickness, despite feeling mostly normal still, but I could have sworn I saw a building sized mother fucker disappear behind a normal building. I didn't get a good look at it, so, I prayed, I was just seeing things out of the amount of fear I was currently in. I stepped inside the lobby of the building, looking around for a stairwell, since I doubted that the elevators would be in working order. I found the metal door in the back of the lobby, hidden around the corner. Fifteen flights of stairs a six minutes later, I was on the roof. The wind was really howling up here, and it helped to mask my footsteps from the single example that was sitting on top of an air conditioner closer to the opposite end of the roof. He was looking out over the city, paying the world around him no attention.

"You just keep looking that way friend, and I'll just go right over here."

Now, the crane didn't look like it was holding it's weight too well. It creaked and moaned in the wind, and I wasn't sure I could cross the 15 meter or so gab between the roof of this building and the radio tower without getting blown off by the wind. So, cursing myself and asking why the hell I hadn't waited for Arien to wake up to do this with him, I slung the AR-500 over my shoulder and, as carefully as one could cross a rusted crane hanging over a fifteen story gap, I started across. I was barely halfway across when the wind gusted particularly hard and swept my feet out from under me, the wrong fucking way. I face planted into the grating that made up the crane, cracking the visor of my gas mask, causing the internal Geiger to spike immediately as the wind tried to sweep me off the crane. I did manage to grab hold of one of the reinforcing struts as it knocked me off, catching myself on one arm initially. Holding on as tightly as I could, I swung around to grab the crane with my other hand, except the piece I gripped broke immediately. I almost lost my grip when the piece of steel came free, plummeting to the ground below, landing with a loud clang and setting off the alarm of the car it had struck. Wonderful.

"Don't look down", I told myself, grabbing a hold of the crane again, "don't you fuckin' look down."

With more strength than I knew I had, I hauled myself back up on top of the crane, low crawling the rest of the way, breathing a sigh of relief when I entered the radio tower. Besides the rubble from where the crane had smashed into it, it looked...mostly normal. It was obvious the animals who worked here had left in a hurry, trying to beat the ZR-5s and whatever other bullshit had been inflicted on this city. Papers and other effects were scattered all over the office that I'd entered and thankfully, the stairwell access was marked by a sign hanging off the ceiling. Upon entering the stair well, I felt an all encompassing weakness begin to overtake me. Losing the strength to keep myself upright, I collapsed, using the guard rail on the stairs to support myself. I looked down at the Geigers on my wrist, the external one was frozen at it's max reading of 1500 Terrarads a second, while the readings inside my suit were getting dangerously close to 700, all because of the crack in the gas mask. With what little strength I had remaining in my arms, I slung my pack off my shoulders and opened it. I had picked up a roll of lead tape some months back on an outing with Hunter. I cut a piece off with my knife and slapped it on the crack in the gas mask and although the Geiger quieted by a substantial margin, it wasn't enough that I was out of the woods. I tasted the mist of the drugs inside the mask and felt some relief, but it wasn't enough. If I didn't hurry this up, I was going to die in this city.

With all the speed I could manage, which wasn't much, I ascended the stair case. It was not an insignificant height to climb, damn near 200 floors to the top, and I had entered on floor 105. As I went up further, I noticed both Geigers started to come down. The internal one came down first and then the external one started to quiet just a little bit after floor 125. By floor 145 the external had dropped below 800 Terrarads, the internal was almost quiet. By floor 165 the external was down to 300 Terrarads, and at floor 180, it had quieted completely, prompting me to turn my other Geiger back on. It screamed to the top of it's band at almost 800 rads a second, but by floor 195, it too, was a church mouse. At last, after what seemed like forever, and with a body that felt like it was ready to fail, I made it to the roof. Up here, at the top, above the radioactive storms of Greenvile, the entire Milky Way was visible. Confirming there was no radiation, I unsealed my suit and pulled the mask off. The air seemed incredibly fresh, intoxicating, like it used to when Hunter and I would go on our hiking trips for a month at a time. I walked to the end of a long catwalk, four of them extended out of the side of the tower. I assumed at one point overlooked the entire city, now, it was just dark grey clouds flashing yellow and green. I sat down on a metal chair that had been left there, prewar perhaps. I sat my pack down beside the chair, taking a minute just to breathe fresh air.

After a minute or two, I decided to hit my radio and try that first.

"Condor Ground 2-6 to Rhino King", I said, "how copy Rhino King?"

Static. I tried again.

"Condor 2-6 to Rhino King, how copy?"

Static. If I couldn't get through with another attempt, I'd get out the Sat Phone. Come on Anthony, I need you to answer the radio.

"Condor 2-6 to Rhino King. Rhino King, please respond."

Static, for only a moment. I could have sworn I heard Truck's voice.

"Rhino King, say again?"

"Eirren! Holy fuck you're alive! Where's Arien! Is he there!?"

"No, he's been injured."

"Where is he then!?", James asked over the radio, "you guys have been MIA for hours now! Storms coming sooner than we thought and there wasn't jack shit in the basement of the MRC! We're running out of time!"

"I'm aware", I said, "listen, is everyone there?"

"Yes! We're all here", Alex said.

"Good, listen guys, and listen well. Arien is in good hands, he's laid up in the closest thing to a hospital I've seen since the war. There is an entire city in the Greenville Metro. Arien and I ended up wandering about five miles from the MRC in the tunnels before we made contact with a group of what I think might be remnants of the US Government. The Medicine that was in the MRC got moved to the EPS, almost on the other side of the city. The issue is that it's the most toxic places in the city, and according to the mayor of Greenville, is almost impossible to reach. Did you leave Arien's Tundra at the MRC?"

"Yeah...we did. On the off chance that you guys might find your way back topside, plus, Arien had the keys."

"Okay. It's an eight kick or so hike from where I'm at back to the MRC. The issue is, I'm at the top of a tower right now as it's the only way to get a signal through the radiation. So, once Arien is on his feet, we're going to have to drive from the MRC to the EPS, on the other side of the city. Now I've already been given a route plan, but here's where things get...difficult."

"Difficult how?", James asked, "we can make something work."

"Tom was very clear, everyone whose gone to the EPS in the past has been killed by either the radiation, or the examples that live there. Anthony, without your Antonov, everyone at the Dock, everyone in Greenville, Arien and Myself, are all as good as dead. I need you guys to not only fly air support, but you're going to have to land the Antonov at the EPS. There's no other way to pull this off."

"Consider it done", Anthony said, without hesitation. And his pilot replied in turn without hesitation either.

"Chto!? Net! Vy khotite, chtoby ya letal v moyem Antonove v toksichnyy layk, kak eto!? My yedva ubezhali v Novochetskenske! YA dazhe ne znayu, chto mozhet sdelat' radiizzheniye s samoletom, yesli my letim pravil'no v serdtse mertvoy zony! My mnogo veshchey Entoni, sumasshedshiy ne odin iz nikh!", The tone of the pilots voice indicated he absolutely thought that was a terrible idea.

"Aleks, mne nuzhno, chtoby ty chto-to ponyat'. Yest' shest'sot zhizney, kotoryye zavisyat ot togo, chto zdes' ne zavisyat ot nashego polnogo sutsessa, a takzhe te, kotoryye v Grinvile. Bez nosoroga kazhdyy iz nikh umirayet, vse muzhchiny, vse samki, vse deti. Arien i Eirren libo umrut ot radiatsionnoy pobuzhdeniya, libo oni sami stanut primerami biomassy. Yesli eto snova proizoydet, Artom i Pavel pogiblo ni za chto. My sobirayemsya letat' Rhino k EPS-parku yey na vzletno-posadochnoy polose, napolnite yeye vse postavki, kotoryye ona mozhet nesti, i dostavit' ikh v Grinvili i Evan, parashyutom, yesli my dolzhny. My luchshiy spetsifikatsiya Rhino Spec, kotoryy dolzhen predlozhit' SpetsNaz, prishlo vremya, kogda my vedemsya tak!", Anthony barked at the pilot with his no bullshit voice. The pilot then stepped up to the radio.

"If I'm flying my Antonov into the cities storm, I want everything on runway palatalized and ready to roll. Rhino has shielding, but not much. We won't last long once we touch down. Ten minutes at most."

"Consider it done", I assured.

"What kind of time frame are we looking at here?", Anthony asked.

"I dunno. Arien needs time to get back on his feet, so...gimme six hours. Then head for the EPS, we won't have radio contact until you dip below the cloud cover, so...I guess use your best judgment."

"Doesn't seem like a very deep window", Anthony said, "then again, we're running thin on time as it is. I'm starting your clock now. Godspeed Eirren, and good luck."

The radio went dead. I looked down at my pack. I was tempted to call Hunter, it might be the last chance I ever got, then again, I was on the clock. I picked up my pack and threw it over my shoulders, putting my mask back on and sealing my suit, I dove back down into the depths of hell itself. Descending the tower was a far easier feat than ascending had been. Low crawling across the crane from the start, I planted my boots on the building across the gap and started for the the way that I had come up, figuring I could just retrace my steps. As I reach for the door, it flew open. Standing there in the door way was the same biomass I had tricked with the bottles.

"You didn't fool us with those bottles!", It bellowed. I raised my rifle, maybe got four shots off before it grabbed me by the neck and lifted me clean off the ground. It lobbed me with a force I didn't think a creature could possess into the side railing of the building. I landed face first, all but shattering the gas mask visor. The internal Geiger spiked instantly to it's max reading of 1500 Terrarads a second, causing the suit to dump the remainder of it's medication into the respirator, which had the effect of completely paralyzing me. I couldn't move at all now. I closed the distance and picked me up by the ankle, holding me a good three or four feet off the ground, the loaded .500 magnum assault rifle hanging worthlessly well within my grasping range, but unable to grab it, I was defenseless.

"A good meal you will make for the little ones", The biomass said, beginning to tear my suit off me layer by layer, until I was down to my underwear, which it started trying to tear off too. The radiation wasted no time in setting in, and, as soon as I felt it's talon wrap around my neck to cut my throat, it threw me aside.

"Who is this?", it asked, dropping me in such away I could see an animal, a tremendous, just absurdly huge black scorpion standing in the door. He was just about eight feet tall and had to duck under the door way when he exited. He was wearing what I could only describe as enough armor to take on a tank and had, of all things, a suppressed Minigun that had a shit load of custom work done to it slung over his shoulder. He was hefting that monstrosity with all the effort of a small carbine too, and looked like he was itching to use it. Some white lettering on the side of the minigun read "Mauser's Chainsaw."

"I thought Tom was ugly. Did you think you could just munch on our Canadian you rotting abortion of a creature?", the scorpion asked, shaking the roof as he stomped around. Dude must have weighed north of 900 kilos to pull that off, "I think the fuck not. Come on big boy! Come pick on something your own size! I'll fucking tear you in half!"

The Biomass lunged at the animal in the armor, who simply spun up his minigun and sawed it in half.

"Chew on that abscess face", the big Scorpion laughed, "guys! Help the crazy Crazy Canadian, we're gonna owe her for this!"

Two other animals filed out behind them. One of them wrapped me in a lead blanket while the other put a gas mask over my face. He looked me in the eyes as I began to slip under, I couldn't deal with this amount of radiation.

"Hey", the big Scorpion said, "stay alive for your boy, ya hear?"

His friends flipping me onto the stretcher was the last thing I remember before passing out.