[i][b]Edward Vates – 8 Months Ago[/b]
Vates held two fingers on the woman’s neck to check for a pulse. It was pointless, she was clearly dead. Her eyes were covered in fungus and so was the inside of her mouth. There was no pool of blood despite the rips in her clothing; he cuts also being covered by the fungus. It was the wife of the man he had encountered earlier in the shop. “What happened to you?” Vates whispered, baffled by the unusual scene.

If the fungus wasn’t already enough reason for Vates to now want to get away from the corpse, he then caught a glimpse of movement in the right eye. Tiny bugs of some sort seemed to be crawling out of the fungus. “Fuck!” Vates jumped, quickly backing away from the body. He wasn’t so naive as to just stand there, instead he began jogging off a fair distance before ducking into a mostly crumbled down building. There he began to check himself and his clothing for any sign of the fungus. Where was the father and his son?[/i]

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[b]Edward Vates – Present Time[/b]
Vates sat crouched in the shadows of window on the second floor of an old school. Outside were five men, two of which he recognised from Cyrus’ old group. [i][b]“So Cyrus has retaken the market after all. It has been months since your encounter and now he might not be so honourable.”[/b][/i] Janus speculated, [b][i]“If he has come back this way it may have even been due to desperation. If they try to kill you what will you do? I do not think driving them away would be an option.”[/b][/i]

Vates tried to ignore Janus and focus on the men outside, but Janus’ words were more than rational and this presented Vates with quite the dilemma. [i]“I need to know more. I think it’s time to make some friends.”[/i] two of the new faces went into the opposite building whilst the other three worked their way into the one Vates was in. Vates quickly slipped off his backpack and removed the majority of his scavenged good, hiding them in a cupboard. With only a few tins of food and some painkillers in his bag Vates took off at a quick but quiet pace over to the skywalk between his building and the opposite one. The bridge was partially collapsed with portions of floor and walls missing and one half having collapsed down a couple of metres tearing the walk in half. Vates looked around in a brief attempt to ensure no one had eyes on him. He then ran along the skywalk, hopping over gaps as he approached them and jumping onto the roof of the second half. He went into a crouch as he landed and had to grip the surface with his hand to stop himself from falling off to the side. Regaining his balance he continued along and climbed through one of the shattered windows. 

“The chief said to look out for supplies and survivors Jeff, not butcher everything in our path!” moaned the scruffier of the two men, who donned a leather duster and long greasy hair. 

“Oh shut it Marvin! That dude probably had a kage, and whether the Chief wants hosts or not I’m not gonna put my ass on the line!” Jeff said defensibly, continuing to keep his sword in the Ochs stance. Jeff was wearing some makeshift armour that had been scavenged from a police uniform. 

The two men were taken off guard by the sudden third voice, “I’m unarmed!”

“Who the fuck?!” exclaimed Jeff as he spun round, his sword nearly catching Marvin. The two of them looked wide eyed at Vates standing in the doorway with his hands raised. 

“What’s your name?” demanded Jeff.

“My name’s Monroe. I’m with a group of five others who are back at our camp. I’m not a host and I’m not hostile. Can we talk?” Vates put on the façade of a desperate survivor in the hopes the men would try to recruit him. “I have food and pills in my bag you can have too”