BAD AND WORSE

Riley arrives on the Alaskan City of Anchorage, it took him a total of 3 days on horseback. The city has no walls the would defend it from biters as they killed almost all of it within the city. There are over 10,000 people in the city, a much bigger population compared to GWN that has over 2,000 people and SPECTRE who has 5,000. All 10,000 men in Anchorage are all trained in the army, they only accept people has a military background, but before the city was accepting of everyone, until a group of over 1,500 military men took over the city. They trained everyone over the age of 16 to fight until their bones break and heal.

Riley looks out of place because of his small build in comparison to a 18 year old that is taking him to the city hall. Although the whole city is cleared they only take took several neighborhoods of the city under their control. The neighborhoods that they have fully taken control over are South Addition, Muldoon, and all of the neighborhoods that leads up to Northeast Anchorage. Other neighborhoods are used as for different purposes such as farming. Despite living like this they only allow the best of their people to live their, the oldest that they have there is 50, anyone who is older than 51 are sent to the GWN, or killed if they are sick. They have been doing this since Schmidt encountered them.

"Do all of them really look this threatening?"

"....."

"O-"

"No, we're good people"

"ahh"

"So, what does Schmidt want?"

"A deal, the vaccines are under way"

"We got a call that it was attacked"

"By?"

"By?"

The man stopped and turned around and pulled him towards him.

"I think you should be the one who knows it, you fuck"

He pulled him off and Riley is terrified, he continued to walk slower behind him. He looks back and sees his car being parked into their open garage, for some reason he starts even more terrified, like he will not get back to Hearst. 'Hey' The man called him, it startled Riley and he continued to walk as he kept turning back. He get into the city hall and there he sat down and waited for their leader, they gave him water and then left him alone.

After a little while their leader gets in, a woman.

"Sakari"

"Riley"

"....."

"What brings you here?"

"Remember our agreement about almost 6 years ago?"

"As clear as day"

As he was about to speak someone came in and reports something to Sakari. The man mentioned about a herd on Pierre and an attack on a municipality called Ophir, Riley's eyes widened upon hearing it. He then mentioned about Phoenix being fully deserted.

"Good, use the people in Ophir as hostages, we might need something"

"Yes ma'am"

"...."

"...."

"What was that?"

"We managed to track down the people that was from Phoenix, they are in a small municipality called Ophir"

"You killed em?"

"No, didn't you hear me? Just hostages"

"Just as worse"

"Now, the fucking HQ was attacked how do you explain our deal now"

"Who attacked it?"

"Some people who has control over Mackinaw, and obviously Norfolk, places that you should be on hold of, now what the fuck deal do we have?"

"We are still in control of the HQ, and the vaccine is almost near to perfection"

"How sure are you?"

"We are literally injecting it to people and seeing what happens"

"do you men?"

"Yes, we have to take over-"

"No, my men will only be used to ensure that our deal goes through, you use your own men to fight"

"We barely have a thousand soldiers and some of them cannot fight"

"Is that our fault, you train your men, ours was only there to watch over you people"

"....."

"Our conversation is going nowhere, we want the vaccine as it is created"

"No possible?"

"No, send it here after you have done everything"

"But the HQ"

"Is is in your lands that HQ, meaning that is your problem, not ours"

"....."

"Leave"

Riley just sat there, his stubbornness caused him to be kicked out on the streets. They drove his car upfront and they have made a total mess of it, even taking half of the gasoline in it. Riley quickly gets in as the men surrounds him, he quickly leaves the city and he looks on the rear-view mirror to see her waving away.

"Crazy bitch!"

Tobias has now arrived on the wharf that they created and he can see the small village that is slowly coming into view. They got into 2 dinghies and they headed for the island, there are also other boats beside them with supplies for the people there and they seem to be making a floating bridge using different buoyant materials, they are half way on meeting on both sides. They put anchors on the bridges so that it won't drift back to the shore.

"Wow, that is working"

"Of course"

"Can't wait until that fully works and traveling will be much easier instead of this boats"

"This is still much faster and probably safer than the bridge, we don't know how many it can carry"

"it can carry 1 man for now"

"Sure, keep hoping"

"Yes sir"

They made it to the other wharf across the channel of water, they tied the dinghies and they hopped down. The village seems to be starting now as there are already more than 10 houses the last time they got there.

"I'm here to only check it, how's everyone?"

"Much better now sir and the greenhouse was of great help"

"Really?"

"Yes sir, the engineers that you sent were of great help they made mechanisms work using that water wheel"

"Awesome, do you have any available men?"

"Is it that time already?"

"Yes"

"Well, I believe you saw them earlier on the other wharf"

"Oh, yeah of course sorry"

Tobias looks around the small developing village and his visions for it seems to be slowly being realized. Tobias walked towards the floating bridge that is being created and one of the engineers offered him to walk on the bridge.

"Is it safe?"

"Yes sir, we planted anchors against the wave so that it won't flow away"

"Sure"

"But it is a bit rickety if you know what I mean"

"Unstable?"

"Uh huh, that is why we go 1 or by 2s as to not move it around a lot"

The engineer on the bridge waved at Tobias ensuring that it is safe and so he did, he puts one of his feet on the bridge and moved a bit, he stepped back. He got on its swiftly and softly, he opens his hands out as he is trying to balance himself.

*This is working now*

"That's enough for me, thank you, and hopefully this will continue"

"Yes sir"

"I'll go now, Toby"

"Yes sir, thank you for showing us the results of your hard work!"

"No problem, take care now"

They got back to the dinghies and left back to the other side of the channel. Tobias feels more relaxed that Akimiski is starting to really go off and survive on their own, he looks back to it once more as the giant waterwheel moves and powers parts of the village, despite that the people there are still cheering.

"Good, now to Hearst"