A tightening was in his chest. He was running hard to the turned over Jeep, his lungs begging for air but he pushed harder to get there. The left side of his face was numb, and his shirt was heavy, he was bleeding but didn't care. He needed to get to her.

The wind picked up and the thumping of a helicopter was in his head, but he didn't care, his eyes were fixed on that jeep, he was going to get there. He could barely see as the helicopter landed very close to him, he suddenly felt two sets of hands on his arms. His fists clenched and he went after the two men holding him. As he turned to face them, they were wearing masks and wearing red. Raiders.

He shouted a name toward the turned over Jeep. But couldn't hear himself.

A dark figure of a slender woman climbed out of the Jeep and he was feeling a small bit of relief as his chest tightened. He fought to get to her as she was in a fight with two men in red as well. The helicopter defiantly landed close to them because the dust was almost unbearable. He was tackled to the ground by someone heavy. His head smacked against the ground making his eyes go blurry and his head got heavy. He was lifted into the helicopter and held down and watched as this woman was being dragged into the helicopter.

"NO!" He shouted as she was loaded into the same helicopter.

As they began to take off, the two of them fought off this mass of men in red camo. He wasn't sure how high they were but fought to his feet. They slapped a cuff on her right wrist. He couldn't see her face but was so scared of what these men had planned for her. With a burst of energy he kicked her in the chest knocking her and one of the men in red out of the helicopter. He prayed they weren't too far up and that she survived the fall. He was forced back onto his face on the floor of the helicopter.

Bullets began striking the hard surface outside if the helicopter.

"Should we turn back?" Someone yelled.

"No. They are massing on the area, we don't want to give them a helicopter."

"Get the fuck off of me!" Jake growled through his gritted teeth.

"You'll pay for us losing her." A garbled voice growled.

He felt a hand grab the back of his head and smashed it into the bottom of the helicopter... darkness...

Jake gasped awake almost jumping out of his bed. He grabbed his head, it aching as if this really happened. He was trying to catch his breath and began hacking.

"Baby?" A meek voice whispered after he regained control of his breath.

Jake spun looking in the eyes of a thin naked red head.

"Oh.. sorry. I forgot someone was here." He stood grabbing a pair of shorts.

He had already forgotten her name and wanted to leave that situation. He walked out into his living room and onto his balcony to look over the city of New Portland.

The sun was coming up. Why was he having these dreams? They are so vivid as if he had really lived them. Since being told by his father that he would be moving back down to the Southwest, he has been having these dreams. He's been in New Portland for 6 years and had never had a dream like this before.

... Two Weeks Later ...

Jake was walking around the compound just watching life go on around him. He was happy to be leaving but a part of him would miss New Portland. Since he cannot remember anything before getting rescued, New Portland felt like home.

"Commander!" A familiar voice called out from behind him.

"Commander." He answered back.

"What's up, pussy?" Chris laughed.

Chris and Jake became fast friends when he moved up to New Portland to help them with the resistance that has started up there. Together he and Chris developed a strategy to squash the resistance in the area and they regained the control. Together they walked in silence for about 10 seconds.

"I'm taking in the sights for the last time. I had a good time here."

"It got better when you showed up. I'm ready for a change in pace."

"Apparently a significant change."

"Yea. The reports out of Arizona are pretty bad. The resistance down there is significantly worse than it was here." Chris handed Jake a tablet.

Jake scanned through it while they walked.

"How is it, this one woman is causing so much trouble but we cannot get any shots of her face in any feed in the area?" He sighed.

"My assumption?" Chris smiled. "She's hideously ugly and is a citizen of The Community and has to hide her Robin Hood type activities. She'd be hanged if she were ever identified."

"Maybe." He focused on a blurry image of a woman.

"What's wrong?" Chris asked abruptly.

"Nothing."

"Dreams again?"

Jake looked up and met eyes with him for a moment and sighed loudly.

"Doesn't matter." He sighed.

"It does. Maybe you're remembering back before you came here."

"It's impossible. I don't remember anything aside from waking up and my dad was there... telling me I was coming to Portland. In these dreams there is a woman."\

"Singular?"

"Yes." Jake laughed. "Maybe I used to be a one woman man."

"Doubtful. I haven't seen you with one woman longer than a night." Chris made a lewd gesture with his hand and crotch.

"Keeping my options open. There are a lot of beautiful women here."

"Were... we're leaving remember."

The two men walked into their favorite bar and sat down. Jake held up 2 fingers to his normal bartender who acknowledged him with a nod.

"Let's walk through this." Chris unbuttoned his uniform jacket and shirt. "This mega resistance chick almost kills you. Slaughters your entire team and you're having dreams about it."

"Don't forget injects me with some weird ... chemical something."

"I forgot about that. So now you're getting a shot every week to stop this nasty shit from killing you but you hack you lungs out sometimes spitting up blood... our doctors can't find a cure."

"Okay. Okay." Jake didn't want to think about that.

The bartender put two bottled beers in front of them. They both take long swigs of the beer.

"Admit it. You're partly excited to face her again."

"I'm..." Jake took another gulp downing the beer and held it up for another. "Interested. I'm stronger and better now. But what haunts me... every time in these dreams I'm getting attacked by a group of Alphas. In the dream I'm calling them "Raiders"."

"Raiders? That is a pretty accurate representation of them. They do raid." Chris finished his beer.

"I'm always worried about this woman."

"What woman?"

"I don't know. Just a woman." Jake sighed.

"Well... if you're wanting to get a piece of ass tonight. Stop that gay shit right now." Chris chuckled.

It was their last few days in New Portland and they were looking to make it an epic going away celebration.