Okay guys, so heres another short chapter. Don't got much else to say other than that.

I have the day off work today. So I'm getting a little bit of writing in and relaxing. I got a buddy coming over for a few beers later. And I'm going to go pick up some more ammo later.

Life has been good lately guys. Sure things are getting more expensive due to inflation. But we just got to take these things with a good sense of humor. Whatever happens, you have to have that mindset that no matter how tough things get, that you will succeed.

That being said, something I highly recommend is if all of you can get it. I would highly suggest getting a backup food supply. Me personally I'm a fan of freeze dried foods for emergency meals, I have about two weeks of it that I never touch and it has a shelf life of 30 years.

Why?

Well remember last year when you saw Grandmothers punching each other out for toilet paper?

Yeah, if you're not a doomsday prepper in one way or another by this point, I would be shocked.

"Woah." Jem said as he stepped off the cargo ship into Atlas.

"This is like something out of Star Wars." He said as he saw all the hover cars and holographic displays.

He hadn't been a big fan of Star Wars ever since the prequels ended. They kind of lost their magic for him after awhile. But he would be damned if the tech wasn't still bad ass. The only issue here was everything seemed a lot more primitive and clunky then in the movies. He doubted he would see any lightsabers anytime soon. And even if they did have them, he imagined they would be a pain in the ass.

He may have trained in fencing briefly in college but he was certain if he had a lightsaber he would probably cut his own arm off by accident within five minutes of having one.

But on the plus side at least the wound would be instantly cauterized. Actually now that he thought about it, you never had to worry about bleeding out if you got your arm cut off. So that seemed to be a benefit.

"Impressed?" Winter asked as Nala was walking right beside Jem.

"Yeah, I may not be too big into Sci fi, but this is pretty cool." He said as Nala was looking at a holographic display of the latest Atlesian robots.

"You two are welcome to explore, I have to go to a debriefing." She handed them a key card.

"This ID will get you on any airship to take you wherever you want on Atlas or Mantle, admission will be free, and if you ever want to leave or go somewhere new, then just scan the ID into your scroll and a pilot will meet you at an approved landing port." She said as Jem chuckled.

"Damn its like Lyft but better!" This was getting better and better.

Since when did Jem get so lucky?

"Any recommendations?" He asked as he really didn't know his way around town.

"Well, a lot of the places up here are more yuppie and wouldn't be suited to your tastes.." Winter admitted as Atlas had a lot more high society people.

"But, down in Mantle, they're a lot more your style. Just make sure to be careful. It's not a dangerous place to be, but I don't want you getting lost." She said as Jem nodded.

"Thats cool, Come on Nala! Let's go exploring!" Jem crouched down and Nala got on his shoulders.

"Oh boy!" She couldn't have been more excited.

Who would have thought her life would change so drastically from being an orphan on Menagerie so quickly? Already she had been to another world, and now she was in Atlas, and she was about to visit Mantle! It was honestly amazing to her that she had been so fortunate. Not everyone had the same luck she had, so she was just glad to be where she was.

Going to Mantle with her new father? Nothing could be better.

Well except for maybe the Alaska trip he promised he would take her on, but it was coming!

She could only think about how delicious the salmon would be.

Her mouth watered at the thought.

Reggie

"Man, where is that boy?" Reggie said to himself as he was expecting Jem to be home by now.

They had been house sitting for awhile now. And so far they hadn't been back yet. It was about day 3. They should have been back from their little trip by now.

"I know they could be running late but seriously I can't be cooped up here for too much lo-" Suddenly Reggie found himself shocked.

He saw a green portal open up.

At first he was shocked, but his shock soon wore off when he saw a face appear through the portal.

"Alright, this is your stop please-" The voice of a man said as Reggie instinctively reached out.

"Hey what the-" He pulled a man out of the portal with a salt and pepper hair style as he thrusted a knife into the wall right next to him.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" He had no idea what was going on, but nobody broke into his Son in laws house!

"WOAH WOAH REGGIE!" Dale said as he popped out of the portal.

"What the? Dale? What the hell is going on?!" This was getting weird.

"Relax! He's friendly!" He turned to see that the man from earlier had his hands up in a 'I mean you no harm." fashion.

"...You know what this is too weird, I'm just going to sit down." He said as he walked over to a chair way too confused to try and figure this out.

Meanwhile Ironwood was looking over the man who had the knife next to his head. He had seen those eyes before on a man. Those were eyes that had seen combat. But he didn't carry himself like a regular soldier. Even his walk screamed professionalism.

Ironwood found himself interested.

Reggie however got even more confused when he saw his Son in law, his daughter and a bunch of children walk out of the portal with him.

"Fuck me, and I thought I had seen it all."

AJ

Aj didn't know how long he had been here. He was wandering through the desert. Had it been days? Weeks? Months? He didn't know. All he knew was that his phone had died a long time ago, and the stuff he had been carrying had gotten too heavy. He dropped the katana he got at the anime convention a few days ago in favor of the small water bottle he had with him. His phone he had lost in the sand days ago. But he didn't care, it was dead anyways, and he was most likely not going to survive this.

The heat of the sun beat down on his back as he kept walking forward, hoping that he would eventually come across a town or something. But his luck was not with him that day.

"Please...Please..." He said to himself as he just wanted to live.

He fell to his knees, too weak to carry on. He couldn't do it anymore. His strength had failed him. His hands dug into the sand around him. His arms were shaking with exhaustion. He hadn't had food for two days, and he had run out of water recently. He wasn't completely dumb, he knew that the human body couldn't last long without water. But he was in the middle of a desert. So it wouldn't surprise him if he would die here.

And then it happened.

It dawned on him.

No one was coming to save him.

He was on his own.

He was so useless he couldn't save his own life.

And he wept.

He didn't think he would have tears to shed. But he was wrong. All the pent up emotions he had over the last few days came pouring out. The tears poured down his face like boiling poison.

And then he heard something in the distance. Could he have been wrong? Was there a town in the distance?

He looked up and his hopes were dashed. He saw another sandstorm coming his way.

But this time he didn't bother to run, he didn't have the strength. He didn't bother to cry out in fear. He had nothing left. So he did the only thing he could do.

He leaned back and opened up his arms.

And he accepted his fate.