Chapter 8

As morning rose Shaya went down the stairs toward the kitchen to find any scraps of food to eat and discuss things with Erica for what would they do in the future.

Grabbing something from the fridge Shaya went over to the living room to find Erica tinkering with her prosthetics once again, always finding something to upgrade and make them more realistic and by the looks of it she had reached tier 3 like her. Jumping over the couch Shaya sat next to Erica.

"So what are we gonna do? I say that we try to reinfornce the house somehow." Shaya asked.

"Just to let you know while you where resting here, I was scavenging to call it now as the outside is the worst and I've gathered some info and if we want to live we need to either work with thugs or make our own little group of people and reign over a place." Erica replied and left Shaya a bit astonished.

Shaya was quiet for a few seconds but spoke up again.

"Okay..You're not quite wrong I stay and did nothing.. So you said to make a small community and protect it from danger. That might be a bit tough oh.. and by the way yesterday when you finished the two thugs, did you by any chance killed someone before and if yes please tell." Asked Shaya a bit concerned.

Letting out a sigh Erica told Shaya that she indeed had killed again when she was out gathering stuff and two thugs showed up to her with lecherous desires and she didn't want to risk it so she put them down and informed that she wasn't with mother issue, and she was pretty sure that her mother had died as the hospital became a base of operation for a gand.

Discussing stuff for sometime both Shaya and Erica agreed to try establish base of operation at their house and set rules for their neighborhood at least. The problem was that they needed more members, maybe some in the neighborhood but Shaya was pretty sure that most of them will decline.

"Well it's worth the try. Even if we don't gather many members they will think twice because if us. Most of the thugs as well as civilians are scared of us and the other that own the armors and as you heard they call us freaks." Said Erica exlaining why the thugs yesterday were scared.

"Yeah. But aren't we a bit to late to gather member?" Asked Shaya.

"We are, cause of someone didn't want to do anything." Erica countered.

"Fair enough. Where shall we begin?"

As the duo left the house and tried to scout the neighborhood to find mermbers, the houses were ravaged empty and the houses that had people inside they were mostly eldery that the thugs didn't bother to dispose.

And the few that weren't eldery they were like empty shells as they had lost their loved ones. All in all their search for member wasn't fruitful and they decided to givr up on the idea and stick to themselves or maybe expand the party if they find any that they trusted.

Returning to the house they sat at the couch and opened the tv, it played only one channel and that had news of the army encircling the town to take the situation under control and for the civilian to try evacuate the perimeter.

When Shaya and Erica saw this they quickly got up and left to find any spare material before the army marched in the town and hell let loose between the two sides.

Not finding much and not wanting to venture into the center of the town because there were already fights betwwen the gangs and they didn't want to be involved with them, so they returned.

After about two days the army started marching in, they rescued any civilian they could and killed any thugs or criminals on the way.

When everything was going the right way, the bosses of the gangs that own the cores and anyone that had one, began to mess with thing and kill the soldier living no survivors and they slowly turn around the situation.

While similar problems to this started to arise within other cities and the goverment ordered the army to retreat from the area effective immediatly.

After a few days the army had succesfully retreated with some causalties, suddenly the disposal of the town was order. There was much more panic from it than when the thugs and criminals freely wondered around.

Approximatly two hours after the announcement the missle sirens started to rang and hell let loose once again. After three minutes four missles could be seen at the sky and several seconds later the impact.

The missles mostly hit the center and most crucial area of the town as the gang made their hideout around there and a loud explosion could be heard.

After the impact the town was in ruin the center of it had four crators at each impact site, two that fell on the center, one at the industrial area and the last one closer to the residential area. Bodies where scattered around, building razed to the the ground and a lot of injured in the ruins of houses.

Those lucky enough went to the shelter or a more secure place that withstood the impact.

Power, water and anything essencial became spare and those who tried to leave the town saw a thin defensive perimeter that shot anyone on sight, be it civilian or criminals.

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Shaya and Erica watched outside as the explosion did some damage to the house some crack here and there with all the window broken. The neighborhood sustained damage as some houses crambled down and a lot had large cracks in them.

Leaving the house to search for any survivors and any material to reinforce their house for the future.

As they searched throught the rumbles and houses they found at the house of an eldery couple which they passed away, they found three kids near the kitchen. Two of them looked quite young around 8-10 and one around 14-16.

Then they approched closer the two were boys and the other a girl.

When the girl heard the duo come closer, she turned around to face them and covered the boys behind her as much as she could with her arm.

When she saw that they weren't thugs she sighed of relief but still had her guard up as to why did they wanted from them.

"Don't worry. We won't hurt, either the boys behind you." Said Shaya trying to comfort the girl.

Hesitating to take her offer the girl spoke up.

"Who are you and what do you want?!" In a rather demanding voice that surprised Shaya a bit.

"I'm Shaya and this is Erica. We live in a house a bit further down and as to what we want is material to reinforce our house and supplies for the future." Shaya said gently.

The girlspoke up while narrowing her eyes. "I'll follow you but if try to do anything shady, we'll leave at the spot."

"Be my guest." Said Shaya as the girl took her hand to stand up and calmed down the two boys and said to them to follow.