Duke coughed and rubbed his eyes as he changed his gas mask's filter. God damn toxic dust always made his eyes itch and made it difficult to breathe. He finally put his mask back on and inhaled deeply in relief. The mask made it difficult to breathe but it wasn't nearly as bad as leaving the mask off. He pulled his hood back up over his head to warm his ears and rubbed his hands together as he stood up. He had been away from home for weeks and was missing his wife, hell he even missed Miguel, the town drunk. He sighed and pulled a picture from his pocket and smiled behind his mask. The picture was of Duke and a headless mannequin in a ruined dress standing in front of a building made mostly of scrap metal and cardboard, a sign over the top that said "Town Hall" in an assortment of salvaged letters.

Duke looked around and packed his food into his backpack, leaving his trash where it was. He threw on his backpack and started walking toward the ruined tower in the distance he had seen the day before. He could hardly see it because of the permanent cloud cover that hung over the planet these days, it was like a decade long night time and even though his eyes had adjusted to the permanent darkness it was still rather difficult to see things in the distance, even against the permanent layer of snow of the ground. It became even more difficult when it began to snow, which was an almost daily occurrence.

Walking through the snow-covered city streets, a survivor in a large coat and heavy riot-armor looked up towards the high tower in the distance. He had no destination in mind, he was simply patrolling. After all, he was an Officer. Or at least, he believed himself to be. Wiping off the residue that had stuck on the glass of his mask with his thick gloves, he clicked on the radio crudely plastered with scotch tape on his right chestpiece. Its antenna was cut, and it had wires sticking out of it. Obviously, the gadget was broken. Despite this, "Officer" began speaking into it.

"Dispatch, this is Officer Wilson. I'm approaching the central tower. Will keep you updated on my status." He spoke into it, with a muffle from his gas mask, as he clicked it again. After speaking, Officer started moving again.

He checked the inner pockets of his coat. He had some food and water wrapped in plastic, but not enough to last more than a few days. One of the inner pockets was filled with ammunition for his .357 Revolver (Holstered on his left chestpiece), while the other held his rechargeable Taser. Compared to other poor saps who had gotten stuck out in this nuclear winter, Officer was fairly well-off. "I can't wait to get back to the station and have a nice ol' cup of Joe..." He said to himself as the tower loomed ever closer Though, this "station" he spoke about did not really exist; he just believes himself to be out on one big patrol across the wastes.

"W-what was that, M-mister Carnaby? You want to s-stay inside?"

There was a voice coming from one of the many worn-down establishments in the dead landscape. Though solitary, the voice seemed to be talking in a conversational tone, quite cheerful, and maybe a little parental.

"Ah, y-yes. We have none l-left t-to eat and the store had r-run out. It's sad but we have t-to go..."

"Oh come n-now. D-don't raise y-your voice at me. I-i've said it before and I'll s-say it again, do N-NOT cuss."

The man kept walking away yet curiously and kept conversing as he traversed the empty area. Though he's seen skeletons and other antrophomorphic objects here and there, he found himself glaring at them and stabbing at least two of them because they were giving him the stink eye and was bad-mouthing him.

"H-heavens! People t-these days are so r-rude and ill bred. Didn't t-their parents e-ever t-teach them manners?! T-this is why we don't go out of-often, don't we, M-mister Carnaby? N-nonetheless... W-were a-almost near so h-hang tight." The man says as he grips his companion and approach the tower.

After another full day of walking Duke finally reached the edge of town. He made his way through the ruined streets, stopping for a moment to drink some soup through the drinking tube of his mask on a bench while engaging in a lively debate about whether or not tomato soup was soup or juice, the idiot skeleton was insistent that tomato soup was not soup. The debate ended abruptly when Duke stood and shouted, "It is soup it says so on the can!" and threw the half full can of soup at the skeleton's head before storming off.

As Duke walked through the streets he stopped and cocked his head to the side as he looked at a naked female mannequin in a store window. "You harlot," Duke said and scoffed, "standing in windows naked, there are children here!" He shouted and pointed across the street to a child-sized mannequin wearing overalls in a children's clothing store. He threw a blanket over the female mannequin's shoulders and wrapped it around her and looked at her through the broken window. "See? that's much better, now you won't scar the children for life when they pass."

After another couple of hours of walking Duke reached the tower in the middle of town. He stood outside its doors and looked up to its ruined roof. "This will do very nicely," Duke said cheerfully and planted his hands on his hips and started for the door, the bag on his back ready to burst. He clearly had something planned for this tower when he reached its summit.

Arriving at the base of the tower, Officer immediately heard the sound of footsteps in the snow. This was highly unusual, and warranted investigation. Crouching down low to the ground, he held down the button of his radio. "Suspicious activity in the area. Will investigate." He whispered into the gadget. Keeping his low stance, he drew his Revolver and held it with both hands as he slowly walked around the perimeter of the tower to find the source of the footsteps.

Reaching the front entrance of the building, Officer saw in the corner of his vision, saw something that resembled an overloaded bag disappear into the doors of the tower. He frantically tapped his radio once more. He spoke very quickly. "Be advised, possible floating objects in the area of the tower. Continuing investigation!" He said in a bit of a panicked tone as he clicked off the radio. He now had his gun raised and aimed in front of him as he advanced towards the door. He leaned up against the wall adjacent to the door, raising the gun to his side, and taking deep breaths.

Once he had prepared himself, he quickly spun around to face the open doors and aimed the revolver. "FREEZE!" He shouted. Expecting to see a floating bag inside. Instead, he saw an actual live human wrapped inside of a beige camo-hoodie and carrying the heavy-looking backpack. Feeling relieved (and slightly foolish), Officer lowered his weapon. "Oh, sorry about that. I mistook you for something else." He said as he returned the gun to its holster. Turning back to the man, Officer spoke again. "What's your name, citizen? And what's your business here?" He asked. This was the first time in years that he had seen another survivor, and while he was subconsciously glad about it, he still had to maintain the image of discipline required of Peacekeepers.

The man was talking again, continuously droning on about biological oddities that he has encountered and heard of in his job.

“See, M-mister Carnaby. T-there is a thing ca-called a Blobfish. It’s a deep sea fish that l-looks like those blob m-monstrosities that you see on TV. Only that it is s-smaller and l-looks more... Um... Less intimidati--”
“W-what? No, of c-course n-not! I’m not m-making it up.”
“Really, n-now? Are you telling m-me that I’m a liar? Heavens, how c-could you accuse me of-of such things? You know f-full w-well that I’m n-nothing like that.”
“I’ll have to r-remind you that I-i am a legitimate s-scientist. I do not m-make up such things, no matter how imp-probable they might seem to be.”

Die made his way through now opened tower doors and passed through the two men, completely oblivious of their presence despite the conversation that they seem to be having. The only person that he senses at the moment the doll he’s clutching on his chest.

“W-well have you heard of this neat m-meat-eating plant? It’s call a Venus flytrap a-and it—“
“Oh… Y-wou could’ve just said that in a n-nicer way, Mister Potty Mouth. But really, it’s interesting it has these s-sensitive hairs i-inside…”

Duke heard someone behind him shout freeze and he turned to face him. The man seemed relieved for some reason and claimed he thought that Duke was something else. What else could Duke be? A ghost maybe, but that was highly illogical. Ghosts didn't carry backpacks. When the officer asked him his name he bowed slightly and said "I am Baron Duke Lordman Kingsly of Kajhetbarogurenbugh and I am here to expand my territory. Are you the owner of this fine establishment?" Duke asked as he looked around the room and then up through a hole in the ceiling. "I would like to ask your permission to plant my flag in the roof and claim this place for Kajhetbarogurenburgh." Duke dropped his bag with a heavy thud and pulled out a handmade flag. It was just an old bed sheet with a giant "K" drawn on it attached to a broken broom handle.

The man with the backpack turned around and responded to his question "I am Baron Duke Lordman Kingsly of Kajhetbarogurenbugh and I am here to expand my territory. Are you the owner of this fine establishment? I would like to ask your permission to plant my flag in the roof and claim this place for Kajhetbarogurenburgh." The man said. Officer simply shook his head. "No, I'm not. I'm simply an Officer making their rounds." He answered, straightening himself up.

"Unless someone claims otherwise, this building is public property however, do you have the proper legal documents to prove your ownership of this place over the previous ones. If you cannot produce them, then I will kindly ask you to desist your claims on the tower." Officer explained. Just as he finished his explanaton however, another survivor came up from behind him and walked past both of them. Curious, Officer turned to the man and listened to what the survivor was muttering to himself.

The newcomer appeared to be saying something about a venus flytrap, whatever bearing it had on the current matter however, Officer didn't know. "Excuse me, sir. What are you doing here?" Officer called out loudly to the newcomer. Upon looking closer, he appeared to clutching some sort of doll in his hands, though it didn't look like any of the shelf toys Officer had seen.

The man did not respond to the calls towards him. He was too busy being with his thoughts. Soon enough, they had made their way up the stairs and away from the others.