Date: December 13th, Thursday, 2018. Time: 20:34

I live…

A shadowy figure stood among the crystaled and snowy banks of the road, covered in a thin coat of ice, like it was glazed with a dusting of icing. The figure's weight and mass crunched along, the wind pushing with all its might unto it's tall shoulders. The wind forced its way through the neighboring trees, causing them to dance with the white and black of the night. Wisps of white and sleet hit the figure's eyes. It brushed the snow away from the gas mask glass for each eye. The inside was warm with heavy breaths, as the filter worked on picking only the purest of air for the face inside. The figure was male in stature and figure. It's head turned towards the road once again. Was something there? A calling? A sound? A threat… 2 shots were fired. The figure stood once again. Silent. It had killed what was bothering it. It killed the living. As all good creatures do.

"Say Judy, you're a creature now right?"

Season 2: Chapter 1: Hard Truths

Porter stood outside of the medical ward. Time and time again, he felt as if this was his least favorite spot on the planet. But this time more than ever. He clasped the handle and walked in. Jesse lay with an IV, and nothing else, in a bed. Her face was pale, and thinner than it should have been. She looked like a ghoul, as if her soul was sucked out in an unceremonious fashion. Porter looked down upon her as one would look at a dying dog.

"This will only last for so long." Porter mumbled quiety. Time had taken its effect on the poor kid. He wasn't even close to being 21 years of age, and yet, he had the attitude and mindset of a dying man at times. His left arm and eye were still there, an aching reminder of him never being able to be whole again. The blue lights emitting from his arm where that reminder. An alarm to remind of pain. Jesse lay with a similar predicament, only each one was a timer. A time that one can only cheat for so long.

"Yeah… and yet Jack put that mangled pile of meat from last year into a tank of liquid and it somehow has vital functions." replied Jesse "the least you can do it help me live that much more."

"Jesse… more augments isn't the cure. It's the removal of an option of one." Porter said. His voice was withered.

"I don't need you dying because you wouldn't do the standard treatment."

Judy stood by the pile of stones. Erected out of desperation and a need for a hole to filled. The air around her was thick. As another stone calmly floated towards the others, stacking on top, Judy flicked out a knife. It came from her left arm, which like others she wished were among the ones she mourned, and reminded her of the pain it caused her. The pain she caused herself. She hated the idea of it now. It used to be this power, this privilege. Now she knows. It's a curse. Judy ran the sharp blade along her hand, where other scars were seen. Blood fell, but only for 10 seconds. Everytime. On the dot. By then, the would had healed, and the machine that was her arm. Putting gloves on, and a gasmask, she turned, to walk into what was no longer a great city, but a quarantine.

Nick...nick…..nick….for every penny there is a nickel.

Judy pulled up her gauntlets. To hide her shame. Her mistakes. Yet when you leave a mark as large as one's chest, it's a bit hard to cover with just cloth and tears.

The city was in ruin. Half of it was simple rubble. These where the cloud lands. Place you would go to be assimilated. You would lose all self worth and feeling. You would become grey. The other half was filled with crime, murder, and a rapist's trafficking group. The whole of the area was covered like a meal in the fridge with a wrap. This wrap was armed, as the Dome was not be challenged. The cloud feared its ability to adapt faster than it. Others saw it on the outside as a barrier, between Hell and normality. Large sections of city where coated in a grey coat. There the people turned. They were mindless. So mindless, the creator of these beasts never got the true ending he wished. He was slowly pulled apart by his own ambitions, fetishes, and creations. His own clouds of poison filled every single part of him they could. He felt for the first time, true nirvana. The succumbing to the mind. The mind is all. The mind is one. Compliance is success for the cloud. Failure is extinction. We are all creatures. We are one… we are many. We can see even if our eyes are not looking. For we see all. We will consume all. All will be one. With the Cloud.

Porter stared at the isolated cell of nanitube in the flash. It flittered like a bug, looking to infest. Porter looked at his arm, and blinked his eye. He was immune. Always was, because was never of here. No diseases harmed him, unless they were brought by him. He resented that. His flu and Pathogen X where contained. But Jesse … Jesse was not lucky. She brought with her the failure of cells. Genetic defects. Sure the people and mammals here had it too, but not to this degree. No. Only Jesse had it. Porter put the small nanitube in the incinerator. It's scream was unheard by the Cloud. The Cloud couldn't reach Porter, for he knew exactly how it hunted. In packs.

Jack and Ghost stood in the halls, discussing nothing in particular. Ghost had not changed much at all over time. He had already seen enough to know everything. Jack was still working on biochemistry. This time not for Judy. Not for anyone other than the survival of the planet. Nick's death had affected his work the most. Nick was just a half in a tank of biogel. No one knew if he would live. Know one seemed to care anymore. The work seemed to be focused on hunkering down. Trying to survive. Beat the Cloud and any other things in its path into submission, or destruction. Jack envied this train of thought as he sent more fresh biogel into Nick's chamber. Nick had not grown back anything. He hadn't moved. All he had was one dead locked eye. Dead locked on a dent made by his lover, his betrayer… His eye was crying. Everyone was crying. They cried dry tears. They screamed whispered words. They weeped silence.

Nick remained. Forever falling. Forever Rising.