Another gunshot that had echoed through the plains. [i]Damn bandits. Fighting among themselves like... bandits, really.[/i] I thought as I stepped on long blocks of wood that formed the dirt stairs down my workshop towards the road, full of cracks and yet not potholes. We were all located in the south of Swells (the name of this community), as empty buildings with smashed windows and chipped walls filled the rest of the community. Once we had 500 people living here before the whole world capsized. Good people. Now, it's like 20 or so. Barely anyone left in this town, so we all lived in the south-western part. The rest of Swells was uninhabited and abandoned, if not roaming with bandits and deadly animals. At least we've got more guns than people here, but just because we had around 50 hidden in an armoury, it doesn't mean we're safe - (here's something I thought of as I passed light poles and dust-coated houses, which still had people living inside of them) you can point a gun at anyone, but who strikes first wins.

I'm the latter. I got an old M40, so obviously I'd be a fair distance when people start pointing barrels. Sorta defective as the thing would regularly drop an entire clip of ammunition, until I decided to tinker around it for one night, getting myself a trusty weapon that would last me for a while. I considered hunting so that we could trade more food with a local clan, but in this environment, that would be suicide. Even if you did manage to hunt down some prey, they would probably be filled with poisons or other dangerous things, like sharp bones. One of our own died from eating an animal whole. getting this nasty parasite which burst out of him like that scene from the movie Alien. Technically, he's still alive, since apparently the parasite's got his consciousness or something. Still, it doesn't mean I'm rather disgusted by the dark, armoured worm-like body, with three jaws and two tentacles acting as his arms.

Speaking of which, he was the teenager who knocked on my door. Those steps were merely his tentacles flailing on the ground. Fooled me good. "Alright. What's the problem?" As I approached the teen, I called out for our local doctor. Unfortunately, it turned out the person pinned underneath the pipe WAS the doctor. "Okay. I can fix the pipe, but I can't fix his ribs." I said, crouching down and sniggering to myself, shaking my thoughts of dry trees that I saw earlier.

"Just get the damn thing off o'me!" He struggled to say, his face acting up. I was kinda jealous that he was still human, although he was probably jealous of not being able to possess the power of us mutants. "Hey... where's Wally? Isn't he supposed to help around here?"

"He's missing! Probably those damn bandits nabbing him during his hunt!" See? This is why I don't go hunting.

"Alright, urgh... Earl, I need a hand here, or rather a strong tentacle - help me lift this pipe off on Hugo here!"

Without hesitation, Earl (the parasite kid) slithered over, making odd remarks about this 'hydralisk,' and how he seemed to have a similar stance as that. Well, that means if one of those buggers get into this community, then I won't be able to tell Earl apart from those hydralisks.

"You got that tentacle of yours around the pipe?" I said, beginning to lose energy already. We were going to lift a 30 cm diameter pipe off Dr. Hugo Ying, which was going to be hard, considering how I needed Wally to help lift. Now, I have a kid named Earl who's helping, and I doubt his strength... anyway, he nodded at me, wrapping his tentacles (I really want to stop using this word) around the pipe and evidentally making Hugo uncomfortable. "Nicely... done, I guess. One, two..."

"Three!" On three, we had somehow rolled the thing off Hugo, making a clang as the thing impacted the road. That was the easy part - the hard part was going to find Wally, our strongest guy around to hold the pipe in place as I screwed it together. If only I had proper equipment to fix the aqueduct pipe permanently...