Dead, wet leaves crunched under Josiah's boot as he made his way through the woods. Rain fell through the canopy, peppering his hood. Panting, he rested his hands on his knees and looked up, brushing hair away from his face and back into his hood. The treeline broke ahead of him, and he could make out the wreckage of an overturned semi-truck behind the trees. With a sigh of relief, he made his way forward. "Eddie? Carol?" he yelled as he walked forward. "Where are you guys?!" The thirteen year old and his friends had snuck away from their settlement to play a game of hide and seek in the Lake Wood, and Josiah had gotten lost.

Josiah made his way through a thorny bush, brushing the leaves away with his thick coat. He came out of the forest and took a moment. He looked up and made his way past the truck and up a small incline. The ruined freeway opened up to him, strewn with destroyed cars and the remains of an old checkpoint to his left. He looked up at the faded green sign barely standing over the road.

Interstate 5. Seattle 20 miles.

How far did they go? Josiah panicked for a moment, but then reasoned that if he just followed the road north he would begin to recognize some landmarks. It was getting dark though, and all in the Sound knew it only becomes more dangerous after the sun goes down. Josiah kneeled and unslung his small backpack, opening up the main pouch. He pulled out the pipe pistol that he and his father built, and loaded a magazine into it. Just in case.

As he fumbled through his backpack, a flock of crows a feww dozen yards ahead of him lifted off with a chorus of chirping. Josiah looked up, nervous. There was something up there that scared them away. But what was it? The boy gripped his pistol tightly, and moved forward. He kept low, against the smoldered hulks of Corvegas and Fords to give him some form of cover. He came to the end of a car, with a large gap between it and an old military armored vehicle, with the spot the birds came from just beyond that and on the northbound lanes of the freeway. Josiah peeked over the hood of the car; nothing was in sight besides lines of cars on the other side of the freeway barriers. He shuffled over to take cover behind the armored vehicle, making sure his weapon was ready. He was just about to swing out when he heard a familiar voice from the other side cry, "Joe!" Joe, where are you?!"

It was Carol. Josiah smiled and emerged, "I'm right here guys!" He came around the side to see Carol standing on top of a car, with Eddie standing below her, looking at the ground. "Thank goodness I found you guys," he said, walking towards them and wiping sweat from his face. Carol shakily pointed where Eddie was staring, and Josiah continued, "Where'd you guys go? What are you.."

He froze. Lying amongst the group of wrecked cars by his friends were three dead men. Clad in massive hulks of power armor, their identity was unmistakable: these were soldiers from the Brotherhood. If the power armor wasn't enough, the insignia the children were all too familiar with was spraypainted on their shoulderpads. They were all riddled with bullet holes and stab wounds, and had their helmets removed, cracked open in pieces on the ground. The blood was still fresh.

"The Brotherhood? Down here? Did you guys..?" Josiah began to ask nervously.

Eddie shook his head, "No! We.. we found them like this like five minutes ago." Eddie turned around and squatted, rubbing his eyes. "We need to get back home."

Carol jumped down from the car, "Who could've done this? All of them had power armor!"

Josiah walked forward, "Eddie's right. Whoever did this is probably around here somewhere." The three huddled together and prepared to begin their trek back home.

"That they are," a voice came from behind the group, when suddenly Josiah was tackled to the ground, his weapon sliding underneath a car. Josiah could only watch as his friends were also brought to the ground by Raiders rushing from all sides. Josiah struggled as his hands were brought behind his back before a firm boot stomped on his back. "I'd stop fighting if I were you."

"Fuck you!" Eddie snarled, before he was met with a kick to the face, knocking him out.

"Alright, let's see what we've got here," what appeared to be the leader of the group walked in the middle of them all, surveying his prey. "Three? Not bad. Not bad at all, folks. Two boys, they look like working age alright. And who's this?" He walked over to Carol, kneeling next to her. "A girl! Good, we need more of you back at camp." He laughed, and twirled his finger to signify his group to round up.

"What are you doing?! Let us go!" Josiah cried, as the man holding him down reached for rope to tie his hands.

The ringleader turned to him and said, "I don't think so. We'll put you to good work fixing up this power armor though. We heard you kids coming and realized you'd be better off put to work rather than having your brains splattered all over the concrete. Y'all agree?" He pointed at some of his men, and said, "Get those bodies back to camp, we need that armor in action ASAP."

Josiah felt his hands get tied behind his back before he was dragged to his feet. He looked at the man holding him, sporting loosely put together leather armor over raggedy clothes. The man gave Josiah a grin, missing several teeth, "Eyes front, boy." Tears began streaming down Josiah's face.

"I want to go home!" he cried.

"Think of us as your new home, kid," the Raider grumbled, "Now move!" he pushed Josiah forward, before a hiss in the wind blew open his skull. The decapitated Raider stood still for a moment, before falling to the ground, bits of brain splattered all over Josiah.

Two of the Raiders lifting one of the dead Brotherhood Knights dropped the body and reached for their weapons. Two more hisses, and they fell dead. "We're under attack!" the ringleader yelled, dropping behind a car. Carol broke free of her constraints, and rushed over to Eddie, trying to wake him up.

"Where are they?!" a Raider yelled from behind a car.

"I can't fuckin' see! Just start shooting!" the leader yelled, firing blindly into the woods across from them. More Raiders fell in single shots to their assailants. Suddenly, from the other side of the woods, the loud bangs of rifles opened up, hitting the Raiders from behind.

Eddie woke up, and he and Carol started crawling over to Josiah, who was huddled behind a car. Raiders fell all around them, blood pooling on the asphalt. "We need to get out of here!" Carol yelled.

Josiah nodded and pointed at his gun, "I'm gonna go get it!" He scrambled on the ground and reached under the car, struggling to get a grip on his pistol. After several seconds of struggling, he finally got ahold of it, pulling it out.

"Oh no you don't!" roared the Raider leader, who appeared and kicked the gun out of Josiahs hand, watching as it flew many yards away. The leader held out his pistol and was just about to pull the trigger when a bullet ripped through his neck, dropping him in seconds. The gunfire slowed, and Josiah rushed back to his friends, all crying and huddling together.

The rain began to pick up again. The sun was nearly down. "Who's doing this?" Eddie whispered.

One of the cars a lane over creaked as someone stepped onto it and slowly crept forward. The children could hear more cars being climbed onto. Josiah closed his eyes, waiting for whoever it was for someone to find them. The car just ahead of them creaked, and then a gruff voice spoke, "You kids alright?"

Josiah looked up. Standing on the car was someone in an armor which he had never seen. Almost everything on the person was jet black, from boots to the combat armor adorning his chest, save for a worn brown duster hanging over everything. The helmet covered his entire head, with some kind of mask covering his mouth and nose. And his eyes… his eyes were covered by dark red goggles, giving him an almost inhuman appearance. The soldier cocked his head to the side, and slung his rifle over his shoulder. Silently, he made several hand gestures, and several more looking exactly like him appeared on his flanks. One of them carried a banner.

A red and white flag flapped in the wind, with a two headed bear prominently displayed in the center, and a red star in the top corner and three words sewn in below the bear.

New California Republic.