Jace walked over to the door slowly and pressed his ear to the cool metal to listen. He had done this when they first arrived at the vault to see what he could hear on the other side; the first time he'd heard only one voice groaning, but now there were two sets of groans. If he'd overlooked the second one earlier, then there could be a whole hoard in there without them ever knowing. After listening for a full minute or so, he turned to look at Basil, a serious expression etched on his features.
	"There are at least two ghouls in there and there could possibly be more. You take the one farthest to the left and I will get the one on the right. If there happens to be more in there...run. Whatever is in there isn't worth our lives to find out, understand?" He lifted the gun to his shoulder and aimed it at the door. He nodded his head towards the door as a signal for Basil to open the door. Every muscle in his body tensed in anticipation, ready to spring like the bullet in the chamber of his gun. Though this was dangerous work, he took silent pleasure in a good fight...

[i]	It was one of the hottest days Jace had ever experienced in the long thirteen years of his life and it was almost intolerable. The hot, humid days were merely typical life for those who lived in the Deeper South. Ever since the bombs had dropped nearly three-hundred years prior, the southern part of the United States seemed to fall closer to the equator; Jace didn't know if that was the truth but he'd heard those rumors since he'd been old enough to remember and believed it just as the other southerners had. Whatever happened after the nuclear winter lifted, the south became so hot it was almost unbearable and the humidity could drain the life out of a person in mere hours if not properly hydrated. To most out west it seemed unfathomable for anyone to want to live out here, but they thought the same about the people out west; at least there was more green life around these parts.
	Night was quickly descending one day and Jace was running home in the hurry of his life. His curfew had passed over an hour ago and he knew his father would use his hide as the new welcome mat for the front door. As he was on his way, though, loud laughter and jeering brought him to a slow standstill. Till this day he didn't know what possessed him to stop, but he followed the noise almost in a trance. Once the voices had grown louder, he stopped and stayed hidden behind the last corner, listening to see what had caught the group's attention.
	"-your momma probably didn't even want you to begin with! She was right to leave this world. Probably didn't want to put up with her weird-ass son!" More laughter ensued.
	"Hey! That's enough!" he yelled as he walked around the corner, hands balled into fists. Once he gauged the situation, he noticed there were four guys, a little older than himself, taunting a kid who may have been a few years younger than all of them.[/i]