Breathing. The sound of his breath through his gasmask. That's all he could think about. His breathing and the pain. He couldn't even remember how he was wounded, was it a bullet? A piece of metal? He urged to remove his mask, but couldn't, or he would be killed by the toxic gases surrounding him. The chaos of the war zone around him seemed distant, like watching a movie. The he heard it, the sound of a bombing run. He hurried, more like hobbled, to reach his destination. The tower, he could win the battle if he just… BOOM! An explosion rocked the earth. He looked up, just in time to see what used to be the tower fall towards him.
Connor woke up in a cold sweat. The same nightmare, every night. How many times has it been? The seventh time this week? Yet it was only Wednesday. He decided not to go back to sleep, for he knew he would have the same nightmare again. What did it mean? The war zone, it seemed so real, did it have some sort of significance? He had no idea. He decided to get something to eat, so he got up and made his way to his refrigerator. It was old, run down, but worked, just like the small, what used to be an RV he lived in. He still had it better than a lot of people, a few years before he was born, nuclear warfare had destroyed civilization, or most of it anyway. Now it was every man for himself.
Connor had no memories of his parents, he was took in by an ex marine for the old US turned merc. He told Connor stories of before the war, when everyone lived in harmony, at least for the most part. He also taught Connor how to scavenge, and, more importantly, how to shoot. He also taught Connor that it is always good to have the technological edge over your opponents. That was Connor's job, scavenging, it's how he supports himself. He always obsessed over one story the merc told him, the story of Atlas. Not the Greek god, but a PM corporation, one that had things decades if not centuries ahead of the technology he currently had. Which wasn't much.
After breakfast, he walked to where he keeps his Charlie Davison motorcycle and drove off, another day of scavenging ahead of him.