Chapter 1

Prologue

Furiously the young man sat at his rotten old desk, scribbling away at a musty black book sitting in front of him, guided only by a dim, dirty lightbulb hanging overhead, the room was filled with the sounds of lead on paper before an abrupt snapping sound broke through.

"Shit…" The man muttered to himself as he held the pencil up, he set it next to the book and opened one of the drawers of his desk, the drawer was full of different tools and pieces of junk that would normally serve no use, he rummaged around the drawer for a moment before cursing again and abruptly slamming the drawer shut. With a huff he stood up and slid his old desk chair into place and went over to his couch, an old, dusty thing and started searching underneath it. "How hard is it to have a goddamned pencil sharpener in a small house?" He said, frustrated as he blindly reached around under the couch. "Ah! Got you!" He said before pulling a small, rusted pencil sharpener from underneath, he stood up and made his way back over to his desk, sitting back down and soon the sound of the pencil being shredded down filled the room, "Gotta sharpen that blade sometime…" He muttered to himself before tossing the sharpener into the side drawer and sweeping the pencil shavings off.

The scribbling started back up, the man's dark, midnight blue eyes focused intently on the book in front of him.

"5 years, that's how long I've been stuck running the tunnels like a rat in a maze and every day I still fucking hate the bastards that started all of it, and for what? Oil that was long dying out when most of the world was making the switch to nuclear power anyway? Or was the U.S just letting their paranoia about the communists get to them? I'd be willing to bet money that was the case if the stuff was still worth something down here...Sometimes I still can't believe it, that those idiots really pushed the button not giving a shit about the billions of people they killed, bet they had a nice little bunker to hide in like those stupid vaults, they get to sit in luxury, all the food and water they could ask for a probably a robot that jerks them off just for the hell of it while thousands have to deal with their actions...Or whoever's left in Boston anyway.

Still can't believe my dad willingly chose to work for them anyway...Still, I hope him and mom made it to somewhere safe, safer than these shitty subway lines, half of them aren't even stable anymore...The ghouls are getting worse too, fucking freaks are pouring in from the abandoned stations, I'm not even sure what else is running around up there...Some kind of way to celebrate the anniversary right? Wondering if a horde of those things is gonna try and storm the gate…Honestly I ask myself why we do this...What's the point? Nothing's ever gonna be normal again no matter how many bells and whistles they have me attach to this place...Is it just for survival now? Or do people really expect the old world to be a thing again? Whatever I suppose...It's just another year.

"Warm" regards, Alex"

With a forlorn sigh he slammed the book shut and opened the bottom drawer of the desk, which was completely empty and he tossed the book in there and shut it with a socked foot, he wearily rubbed his eyes before settling them on the small alarm clock sitting on his desk, a couple bangs of his black, shoulder length hair rested on his temples as he watched the second hand ticking slowly, it just hit 12:05. "I should've been heading off for college by now...Or at least graduated high school…" Alex said to himself, quickly following up with another depressed sigh, he had just turned 18 earlier in the month, and had nothing worth celebrating in his opinion, aside from people giving him that old, you should be thankful you're alive bullshit."Could've met someone, could've had some fucking friends…" His face scrunched with anger, as the constant memories of the last five years began to nag at him. "Can't have friends in this world anyway...Not when they all just end up dying." Brief flashes went through his mind, people he met while trying to survive, those that didn't attack him on sight, all dying at the hands of one of the new world's savage beasts.

Suddenly his eyes darted over to something leaning against the wall, an authentic Japanese katana neatly tucked away in its sheath, and a handmade rifle leaning next to it, made from pipes, wood and some bolts. "Those are the only friends you have in the world…" He said, a phrase he'd often heard his father say after he came back from the battle for Anchorage. "Soldiers have comrades, they don't have friends, their only friends are the gun in their hands, and the grenades hanging around their belt." He could hear his dad's voice say, he was a loner, loyal to the military to a fault, but he never adopted that brotherly attachment most soldiers did.

Alex stood up and walked over to the weapons resting on the wall, he picked the sheath up and just barely took the sword out, the steel shining under the faint light, he had adopted his father's motto very well, that sword was his pride and joy, it was one of two weapons his father owned, the sword coming from his great great grandfather following his travels in Japan, passed down as a sort of family heirloom as he had it specially made. "I wonder if dad ever actually intended for this thing to be used?..." He asked himself before sliding the blade back into the sheath and setting it against the wall, he sat back at his desk and opened the top drawer, inside was a freshly oiled Remington 1858 New Model Army revolver, sitting in there with a box of .44 caliber bullets.

"Never understood why you liked this thing so much...You guys had those laser guns and plasma rifles...And yet you preferred some old Civil War revolver…" He reached in the drawer and took the revolver out, clicking the hammer back and spinning the cylinder. "Then again you always preferred bullets over lasers." Alex chuckled quietly, his father preferred older technology, at least as far as firearms were concerned, and he absolutely hated the commonplace robot guards every place had now, to him nothing beat having a real flesh and blood human doing the job.

Then, with no rhyme or reason he pressed the barrel of the gun against his temple and casually pulled the trigger, the gun clicked but no bang, he opened the cylinder and the gun was one rotation off from blowing his head off, a somewhat crooked smile came to his face as he whipped his wrist and the cylinder went back into place, silently he set the gun back into the drawer and quietly closed it, he looked up at the rusted scrap metal of his ceiling for a moment, then he casually got up and walked over to the coat rack by his front door, taking down a black hoodie and throwing it on, he picked the sword up and looped the sheath around his back and opened the front door.

The town, or the closest thing to a town, was the leading settlement of the new world, formed by the former Metro Federation turned Metro Coalition after the unification with the Metro Alliance following the death of former leader Marchand, it had several small shack homes, a hardware store that was really just a trading post, a bar and of course a gun shop. Alex stepped down from the platform and let himself be bathed under the warm neon lights from the few signs the shops had, and the yellow glow of small lights all around him, a few people gave him a glance and a half hearted wave as he passed them and approached one of the shops, a bar with a large sign over the door with "Johnny's Bar" written on it in large green letters, the O had a four leaf clover in the middle of it and there was a neon beer sign next to the door.

He opened the door to the obvious smell of alcohol and cigarettes in the air, about a dozen people were sitting in the booth seats, a full seat of people at the poker table and a couple of guys over by the surprisingly pristine pool table and at the bar there was a man, scraggly beard with long enough hair that the two looked connected, wiping down the bar when he looked in Alex's direction. "Aye Alex laddie! Good to see you!" The man called out with probably the most cliche Irish accent a person could have, Alex gave him a half hearted grin as he walked over to the bar, taking a seat at one of the stools. "Hey Johnny...Busy night eh?" He asked quietly. "Oh you know it lad...You know how everyone gets this time of year…" Well, aside from Johnny himself actually, the guy was always in a good mood for some reason and people thought he was probably at least half drunk most of the time. "Yeah...Lot of people don't like to remember it." He responded, looking over at someone who was sitting at a booth by themselves, presumably passed out from drinking a lot that evening.

Johnny reached underneath the bar and pulled out a bottle of Nuka Cola and set it in front of Alex, who took it without a word and nodded towards the Irishman before twisting the little red cap off and taking a quick drink. "You know you're the only person I know who walks into a bar and doesn't drink beer." Alex just shrugged his shoulders. "I tried it once when I was a little younger, not a big fan of the taste." There was a brief moment of silence, Alex absently taking drinks from the bottle as his attention shifted over to the guys at the pool table, the loud clacking of pool balls followed by one of them hollering with joy, somehow the place always had that strange energy about it, walking in you'd suddenly have this unexplained rush of happiness, maybe it was the aesthetic. "I see you've got that sword of yours on your back lad, you got plans to go out with a hunting party tonight?" Johnny asked, breaking the silence between them. "I wasn't planning on going out with anyone, probably by myself for a bit and see if I can't find something to take my anger out on…" Alex responded, followed by a bit of a dark sounding chuckle, he had made hunting ghouls over the years a game of sorts, a somewhat sadistic game of hide and seek where the seeker had a sword, and the hider ended up mulched like it was in a blender.

"Aye, sometimes I think you get a little too much enjoyment out of killing ghouls Al, but you're probably the only thing keepin' em from breaking the gates down and snackin' on everyone." Johnny said while he was trying to deal with a particularly stubborn stain on the bar, actually picking at it with one of his nails, it was probably dried on throw up or something. "I wish that was the case, still feel sorry for those poor bastards up in Cambridge, seems like they didn't really have much of a chance." Alex's tone was a little darker, the station up there had been completely destroyed by ghouls, only two or three people managed to make it out. He lifted the bottle and started chugging the entire thing down within a couple seconds, Johnny took the bottle and set the cap back on before putting it under the bare with about a dozen other emptied Nuka bottles. "I think I'm gonna head out for the night John, see if I can't find a pack or two to cut down." Johnny nodded as Alex did a half spin in the stool and stood up. "Be careful out there lad, make sure you take a gun with you this time, don't need you having another incident like before." Alex responded with a casual sounding "Eh" and just shrugged his shoulders before making his way towards the door, not like dying was exactly something he was worried about at this point. He left and on his way towards the Northern gate that separated the town from those lines, he humored Johnny's request and quickly returned home to grab the rifle that was sitting against the wall, as well as a couple of spare magazines for it.

He approached the gate and made a brief hand motion towards the guard, who nodded in response from the small tower overlooking the other side and with a hand crank the large wooden gate opened just enough for him to get through before the guard quickly shut it behind him, beyond that point there was nothing but darkness, most of the old subway lights had gone out during the war so the tunnels were extremely dark, Alex pulled the hood of his coat over his head and took a small black bandana out of his pocket and wrapped it around his face, it was a little trick he used to blend in with the surroundings, he lost count of how many times he fooled a person or a pack of ghouls just by hiding in nearly plain sight, he cracked his knuckles and underneath his bandana a somewhat evil grin came to his face as he started walking down the tunnel, the guard watching as he completely disappeared in the dark. "I wonder if one of the demons is gonna come get me…" He said with a sarcastic, snarky tone, he heard all the stories that had come up in the years since the war, ridiculous things such as the darkness being alive and slowly encroaching on everyone, waiting for the right moment to strike and consume them, ghost stories about people who saw their dead loved ones and how they would guide them to safety, or others about ghostly subway trains passing through the lines, filled with people with people just going about their business as if nothing was wrong, he didn't go for that fairytale bullshit, he had seen real horror in monsters like the ghouls or those eyeless freaks of nature, that was real terror, something people should really be scared of, not passing off stupid fairytales to make people scared of the dark.

Minutes went by, a half hour of nothing, not a ghoul, not even another soul, the only things were the sound of concrete pebbles idly settling in the background, accompanied by the sound of an old rusted pipe dripping and the slight breeze quietly blowing through the line, something about this was far more unsettling to him than if he'd ran into a massive pack of ghouls, danger wasn't foreign to him, silence outside of town however was, something didn't feel right, Alex found himself actively looking for something, anything that would give a hint of danger but there was nothing, no ghouls, no monsters, it was quiet, disturbingly quiet, suddenly there was a sound, a sound that he hadn't heard in years, Alex tilted his head towards the concrete ceiling as the sound of a nuclear siren was slowly approaching, it was approaching...Alex froze in place as the sound chilled him to the bone, he could feel his breathing start to hitch, then quickly accelerate, like a damn war veteran it all came back, the day the bombs dropped, the sheer panic and terror that wracked his body that day, the screams of terrified parents and children, followed by the earth rattling shockwave and the sounds of Boston's sirens slowly dying down.

Most people would've said the sound was just an old siren that had started back up, but it was moving towards him, getting louder and louder and soon it was standing right over him, he couldn't breathe, the sound went from a regular nuclear siren to a dying one, just like all those fucking years ago, every muscle in Alex's body had stiffened, hard as a rock and he couldn't take a step even if he wanted to, that damn siren, it wouldn't stop, alternating between that long rising tone, and the struggling, glitchy sounds of a dying siren, soon the sound began to fade away, as if whatever was making it was slowly moving away, the siren faded away in the distance and Alex suddenly fell to his knees, pulling his bandana down as he couldn't catch his breath, beads of sweat running down his forehead, his breathing cracked a little bit as he struggled to catch his breath,his body finally released the tension and he stood back to his feet, with a shaky hand he pulled the bandana back up over his face, and started walking again, his steps were sloppy and awkward, still trying to get his bearings after nearly having a breakdown on the spot, instinctively he had his hand resting on the handle of his sword, ready to pull it out and start swinging at any moment, he was expecting that stupid siren to come back at any moment but it was completely gone by this point, leaving him wondering just what could make the sound that loud and be able to move.

Suddenly a shrill, ear piercing shriek broke through the silence, almost on autopilot Alex had his sword unsheathed and ready for a fight, his hands nervously gripped the handle as he quietly made his way against the wall, keeping himself out of sight out of whatever might be ahead of him, he took a deep breath to center himself and slow things down a bit as his heart was pounding in his ears at the moment, he inched himself forward a couple steps before another scream rang through the tunnel, he was fairly certain it was a girl by the pitch, either that or a guy with an extremely feminine scream. There was nothing for a few moments, just an unsettling silence, he kept himself near the wall, slowly inching forward and keeping an ear open, then another sound, shoes hitting the concrete, someone was running in his direction, actually it was more like they were sprinting towards him, he couldn't quite see the person yet, it was far too dark and they hadn't ran in front of one of the few really dim lights that were still active. Then he caught sight of someone, a long winter coat flapping in the wind as they ran past the light but he couldn't see their face, he could plainly make out the person's figure, clearly a woman but he didn't see her face, he could hear her breathing though, panicked and just trying to get away from whatever was chasing her.

She was quickly closing the distance between himself and her and he had to think fast, as she was close enough to pass he reached out with one hand, grabbing one of her wrists and stopping her in her tracks, she quickly whipped around, letting out a scream before suddenly pulling a knife from her coat pocket, wildly swinging at him, he let go but she kept swinging, knife getting closer to him, he tilted his sword towards her and with a loud clang her knife bounced off his sword, stopping her brief offense. "You done?" He asked, the girl didn't respond however, terrified and out of breath from running. "Look, if I was going to kill you I would've done it by now, catch your breath and tell me what's going on." He obviously didn't have the patience for this, his own mind was still running faster than she was, she took a moment to catch her breath and nervously started pointing down the tunnel, towards literally nothing, she tried to say something but she was clearly still very afraid as she was just stuttering incoherently.

"S'il te plait ne le laisse pas me tuer..." Her somewhat heavy French accent was stained with fear, on the verge of tears, Alex looked down the line and there wasn't anything coming, he assumed it was a pack of ghouls, or something along those lines, he couldn't speak French outside of maybe one or two words but judging from how she was acting something was after her, he held a finger up, silently telling her to be quiet so he could hear, not a sound was coming from the direction she did now. Alex let out a frustrated sigh as he looked at the girl. "The fuck is chasing you?" He asked, it took her a moment to answer, causing him to spin his finger around in a "get on with it" motion. "Je ... je ne sais pas." He placed his thumb and forefinger on his temples, he wasn't in the mood for this, he opened his mouth to speak when suddenly a loud, phlegmy sounding growl came from further down the line, the girl suddenly clung onto Alex, about to break down crying in sheer terror at whatever was coming, the sound of large bare feet slapping on the concrete began approaching, along with loud grunts and growls like an animal, a loud scream like growl came next as Alex finally could see what the hell was on its way.

An enormous behemoth of a man, easily over 6'8 and from muscle mass alone looked to be 350 pounds, he was hunched over, sniffing at the air like an animal on the hunt, he was soaked in blood from head to toe, he wasn't even sure if the thing was human or not, his body was riddled with cuts and boils, he wasn't even wearing clothes aside from a few loose rags on his body, his legs were completely red from blood, and he had something over his face, a mask of some kind, that looked like it was made from a person's face, still fresh and twisted in an expression of horror, with dead grey eyes underneath, Alex quickly hid in the dark, whispering to the girl to stay close to him, there was a nearby access tunnel that was completely in the dark and he slowly started inching his way over to it, eyes stuck on the monster the entire time, something looked familiar about it, he couldn't quite put his finger on it though, the monster looked up at the ceiling and let out a loud, prolonged scream, blood and bile spewing from its mouth as its long fingers twitched, Alex and the girl carefully snuck into the access tunnel, where they were both hidden in the dark and they waited, the monster started walking closer and closer, bare feet smacking on the concrete as it closed the distance, he made a clicking sound of some kind, like the bile in his throat was bubbling, its head wildly snapped around, this thing was clearly hunting, hunting down the girl judging by how she was.

It made it to where they were hiding, it hunched over, curiously looking in every direction, for a brief moment its eyes settled on where they were hiding, it took a step towards their tunnel, they were both tense, a layer of sweat on both their foreheads as the monster grew ever closer, its head poked past the support pillars of the tunnel and suddenly, in a spur of the moment idea Alex swung his sword upwards, slicing through the human face mask and into the monster's right eye, blood spattered on the ground as the monster reeling back, screaming hysterically and clutching at its injured eye, it wouldn't stop screaming, it sounded like a murder victim. "Come on! What are you waiting for?!" Alex said as he grabbed the girl's wrist and quickly pulled her out of the tunnel and started shoving her ahead of him. "Keep going South, you'll reach downtown and tell them a guy named Alex sent you, now go." He turned his back to the girl, who was initially hesitant at first to leave him alone with that thing, but she started running down the tunnel, her footsteps fading off into the distance as Alex stood against this monster, he held his sword close to his face and took his stance, he took a deep breath as the monster set its remaining eye right on him, screaming in anger as it charged at him, swinging its long, claw like hands at him, Alex sidestepped and a clean swipe caught one of the monster's arms, it cried out in pain as its arm was only hanging by a few threads of muscle, it turned its back to him, groaning in pain and what soon followed was a horrific cracking sound before the monster suddenly swung that arm at him, somehow reattached as if nothing had happened, the attack caught him off guard and he couldn't avoid it in time, the back of the monster's hand hit him like a brick and sent him to the ground, knocking his sword out of his hands.

He sat up, rubbing his sore chin as the monster came charging at him again, he quickly reached for his gun and a hail of bullets came flying at the creature, bullets ripped through the creature's flesh but it didn't seem to do much to deter it, it stopped the charge but the monster refused to die, skin being ripped away by searing hot lead, Alex quickly threw a fresh magazine in, barely giving the monster any reprieve before opening another assault on it, as the bullets ripped through it the monster just screamed at him, a psychotic, animalistic scream that make his blood chill. Two magazines, 48 rounds emptied into this thing and it was still standing, growling menacingly at him, its arms were barely attached still but it let another primal scream and started charging at him, for a moment Alex froze, he wasn't sure what to do, it wouldn't die after having enough bullets to kill an elephant put in it, even if they were just .38s it still should've done something, he seemingly spaced out for a moment as the monster quickly closed the distance, the flight portion of that fight or flight kicked in as he avoided the thing at the last second, quickly looped the gun back around and sprinted for his sword, picking it up off the ground without missing a step and quickly resheathing it, he broke into a mad dash just to get away from the thing, it was at least a little slower now than before, he just wanted to get away, his heart was pounding in his ears again, for the first time in a long while he was afraid of something…

The monster's psychotic wailing eventually gave way to silence as he managed to escape, he could still hear it screaming even as he'd made considerable distance from it, his entire body was shaking, he was locked in tunnel vision just trying to get away from the thing, eventually the screaming finally silenced, he was able to stop for a moment and catch his breath, his chest was on fire, a mix from his running and the fact that he was afraid of whatever that was he was facing, he stopped and leaned his back against the wall, taking loud, deep breaths to get his bearings before he slouched to the ground, yanking his bandana down and pushing his hood back, his face was a deep red, hair a mess from sweat, he brushed one of his bangs aside as he took a moment to realize things, he'd seen everything the apocalypse had to offer so far...The ghouls, mutated animals, monstrous creatures that came and went...But that thing, whatever it was, it was something he had never seen before, something he wasn't planning for, something he wasn't even sure how to plan for...It was easy to outfight it, the thing was the same as a dumb animal, it couldn't even speak, but the fact it took two magazines to its entire body and didn't die, it horrified him, it sent a chill down his spine, he finally caught his breath again, it wasn't chaotic, he managed to control it and slow it along with his heart rate down a bit, he stood back to his feet and continued the journey back to the town, within minutes the northern gate came into view and the guard flagged him down. "Hey! Who's the girl?" He asked. "I don't know, I ran into her out in the tunnels, she was being chased by this...Thing." Alex wasn't sure how to explain it. "Thing?" As if on cue the guard was questioning. "Yeah thing...I don't know what it was, it was nothing I've ever seen before." As he approached the gate he could see the very real look of terror in the guard's face as he frantically twisted the hand crank to open the gate, after closing it he climbed down from the tower to question him a bit.

"What exactly did you see out there Alex?" He asked, to which Alex just shook his head. "I told you...I'm not sure what it was but it was certainly something that would put the ghouls to shame...I put 48 rounds into the thing and it didn't die, it barely even slowed it down, now damn it I know these are just .38s but if you shoot something 48 times and you don't even slow it down much less kill it, then I don't know what you'd call that…" The guard was unsurprisingly horrified at what he was hearing, Alex pressed his palm to his forehead, frustrated and nervous. "Where did the girl go?" He finally asked. "She went into town, I didn't know where specifically...Should I get some people together to go deal with this thing?" He asked but Alex quickly shook his head.

"No, no I don't know anything about this thing and if we sent anyone out there it'd be blind and most likely suicide if we did…" He said grimly before walking past the guard, "I need to think about this for a little while…" The guard went back to his post as Alex made his way into town, of course as soon as he arrived he noticed the girl, sitting on the edge of the platform in front of his house looking around, as if she'd never seen something outside of a single crappy shack in the middle of the line, under the town's lights he got a much better look at her, short light brown locks, skin as pale as a pearl and violet colored eyes that bordered on hypnotic, she had some red turtleneck underneath the long black winter coat and some pretty basic black pants, although something felt a little off about her, compared to a lot of people who had cracked skin, chapped lips and looked like they hadn't seen a shower in months, aside from a few dirt smudges on her face, she was almost pristine if he had to put a word on it, kind of creeped him out how different she looked compared to everyone else, the moment her eyes settled on him a smile came to her face and she popped up from where she was sitting and walked towards him, acting like she was about to hug him but he held a hand out towards her, making her keep her distance. "Est-ce que tu vas bien?" She said, causing Alex to tilt his head with a look basically saying "Can you repeat that?"

"Uh...I don't speak French, so I really hope you know English." He said, to which she nodded her head. "My apologies monsieur, I was asking if you were alright." She said, she was clearly a little timid, still shaken up from the entire ordeal. "Yeah...I'm fine, since I'm guessing you're alright just go over to that house over there." He pointed towards a large two story home on the other side of town, built onto the track with a small gate out front, a couple of turrets and a large flag bearing the Metro Coalition's symbol on the front. "The guy who runs the place, Madsen, he'll give you the welcome wagon and a place to stay if you need it." He stepped up on the platform towards his home, not even giving the girl the time of day before he headed inside, curiously she tilted her head as he slammed the door behind him, she looked towards the large house at the tunnel opening, then back towards Alex's for a moment, for no reason a bright smile came to her face and she muttered something to herself, gently placing her hand over her chest, then she made her way towards Madsen's home.