"Stranger in a Strange Land."

Prologue

The sand whipped into the strong winds. Dust from dead bodies and dying plants coated the once pristine black top roads. Cars were lined along the roads, long since dead. Some red vans and black sports cars were tipped over, stripped of their parts then tossed by the heavy tidal waves of the sand storms.

Everything was like a big desert.

The sun was bearing down, hot, strikingly so. Yet there were dark ominous clouds looming around the large flaming ball of light. It seemed like it was going to rain, but everyone knew it didn't rain anymore.

Not around here any way.

It was Winter here actually,'December 10th 2016'if I remembered right. Of course no one remembers dates any more, they just don't matter. But it seemed like it would be Summer forever. The only way you knew it was Winter here was the fact everything froze over during the night and by the slight chill in the wind. People freeze as well. Sometimes if you traveled quickly along the sand you could find frozen bodies, but they don't stay there long, they get eaten by Enders quickly.

I call them Enders, those black oily worm like things, because thats what they do. They end things, like people and animals. I even saw them destroy a tree once. They don't just kill them they devour them, or infect them too. Other people call them infected, unworthy, tentacles, worms, and one woman called them Uroboros.

I knew that Uroboros in either Latin or Mayan was something about a snake eating itself, or another term for The End. Basically this 'New World' was an after the Apocalypse world. But really the Apocalypse didn't happen. It seemed more to me like those fallout movies I saw. To tell the truth I'm not sure what happened. All I know is that 7 years ago there was 6 billion people on Earth living out their lives in their civilization. Now I'd be surprised to count a thousand people still alive and not infected or zombiefied. Half of those people are called the Greeds; their the people who lost their minds and became greedy for anything and everything they could get their hands on. They were like raiders but more lethal.

Then there was me.

I was 16 and in highschool they day all of this started. The last memory I had was that I was running from something and heading towards the large glass double doors of my highschool but the walls fell in on me and I died. Yet some how I woke up about a month later, my memories blurry and my body acting stranger then I remembered. Something inside my head told me to run and never stop running. Find weapons; I went home and took every gun and piece of ammo from my step dad's safe. Get food; I took everything I could from Wal-Mart. Wear warm clothing; I wear a sleeveless shirt and long stretchy pants with a long garb like flowing cloak with a hoody protecting my face, all in black and reds. Shield sensitive eyes; I took a pair of thick lensed sunglasses and only took them off when I slept. Stay safe!

Those were the things my new senses told me, screamed to me really.

At one time I thought I was the last living thing on Earth. Then the Enders attacked me, then the Greeds, and then I was nearly killed by rabid starved animals. Each and every single time I killed the things that attacked me with quick skilled precision I didn't remember having. It scared me, I became afraid of myself. I gave myself nightmares.

I never thought things would change.

Then after 2 years of traveling alone, day after day on foot, I discovered a small gathering of people.

In America there was about 10 people for every 1 state, that was the ratio for sane life. But in places where there were no laws against owning fire arms, more people lived. I knew nothing about other countries, I had heard they faired no better. I once traveled all the way to New York City, a years worth of travel. The place was filled with Greeds. They ran everything there. So I never went back.

But here in Texas, which is the place I was born and lived in most of my entire life and the place I am now, there is a small town called Dust Bucket. They call it Dust City for short. There are about 3 large families running the place and only a few extra that live there. It is the largest settlement of sane humans in Texas that I've ever seen.

The town still believed in democracy along with other things I never thought I'd see again. Like a church, a full up and running church. I thought that after something like this people would lose all faith. But mankind has proved it's resilience.

They also had shops, a dinner, a water recycling plant, a miniature hospital, a morgue, a small electrical plant, and a sheriff. It was basically a high tech modern day old western town. If that made any sense.

In this town no one cared about race, sex, sexuality, or any of that stuff. The things that used to start wars or fights didn't exist there. If you had two working hands, feet, eyes, and nose any and all jobs were open to you. The sheriff matter of fact was a 30 something red head who said she had the most training for the position.

Her name was Laura Ronning, she said she used to work for the BSAA, or something like that. She said when she was younger there was a guy who founded the BSAA and fought against the man who caused our New World to be created. She never gave me the details though. I wonder why?

I remember the first day I stumbled upon this town well. I was getting tired from 3 days worth of travel when dust cleared from a sand storm that had been going. When it did I saw lights. I came to the town but was then stopped by 3 men on horse back with shotguns. They told me Outsiders weren't allowed in their town, neither were Freaks. They accused me of being a Freak since I refused to take my sunglasses off.

Freaks were said to be people who were no longer human but weren't anything else either. Really I wasn't sure what they were supposed to be. There was a whole lot of rumors about them. Freaks had red eyes and super powers supposedly. Nobody knew how, some say they got mutated by some weird disease others said they got infected but were half immune to the bad stuff so they survived with a right mind. I didn't know if I was one or not, I'd really rather not know. But I heard Ronning call them something else once, Worthy. I don't like that term though.

But while the men pointed their guns at me the ground trembled and up appeared a cobra Ender. It was huge! I had never seen such a big snake style Ender before. They tried to fight it off but they couldn't. If they got any closer they would all be killed and struck down by the cobra. I decided to protect them, to protect the last legacy of what I once was.

I used the katana sword I had found in the southern mall wreckage and I cut off it's head. Just like that I became like Hercules after killing the Hydra.

They welcomed me into the town like family and I didn't betray them. I became their protector and did just that. They asked me my name, I told them I didn't remember. Because really I didn't.

They named me Outsider.

I played checkers with the kids, I ate and talked about my travels at the dinner, I helped keep people in line along side the sheriff, and I even helped cook sometimes. The Doc even wanted to search my body for infections or wounds, but I told him I was fine. The new instincts in my head told me to never let anyone see under my garb or sunglasses.

I didn't know why so I never questioned it.

Matter of fact the only thing I knew about my body was the fact I was a girl and had brown hair, that was basically it. But in the world I lived in now the only thing that mattered was the ability to survive.

Well thats what the people of Dust City did. They grew their own crops, they milked their own cows, and raised their own meat. They worked hard to survive and live.

Nothing to me tasted better then a tall glass of cold fresh milk.

On Sundays Miss Maybell cooked me a whole apple pie, on Wednesdays Mister Jackson told me stories about how he used to be a jazz player, and Sheriff Ronning would always tell me stories about the BSAA when I came to sleep in the jail house. These people knew how to live better then I did and helped to give me hope again.

So I helped them survive and they helped me to live, since those were two different things.

It was a month ago I traveled back to my old home town and walked through the ruins.I went back to the place I woke up after the New World started. The place brought back alot of memories. I promised on the grave site of my friends and family that I'd work as hard as I could to make things they way they used to be.

Now I know thats impossible.

It was another months journey across the black top roads I was talking about earlier back to Dust City. The one thing on my mind was that tall glass of cold milk.

Little did I know things were about to change.