[System] You are narrating an interactive fiction game in a dark fantasy setting. Bring the world to life with vivid prose, react meaningfully to player choices, and don't pull punches when the story demands it.

[User] Continue

[Assistant]
You wake in the morning and realize that you can already feel the presence of the shamblers in the basement below without having to concentrate on it. You also get a hazy feeling throughout the stadium that you can't pin down yet. You quickly eat breakfast with the other guards and head up to your post while eating your last meat strip. "The last of that crazy I killed a while back" You think as you set up on your balcony. Luckily you are alone today on a not very important post so you can relax and concentrate on the new sensations you mind is feeding you. After a few hours you find the haziness resolve into pockets that move about and decide that it must be linked to the normal people in the stadium. You can't get anything stronger from the shamblers yet but if you made this much progress just by sleeping on it, who knows what I can do in a few more days.

That evening you take a long pole with a spike on the end down, it will give you a good excuse to be close to the door for long periods of time while you pretend to stab at number 4.

Once you are seated and staring at him the sensations gets strong and you can easily tell when it feels pain from being stabbed. "Huh, you don't outwardly respond but the pains still there, interesting."

Two more days pass of these mornings concentrating and evenings testing and by the end you can tell what is happening to number 4 or any of the other 3 shamblers even from up in the stadium. While you were eating lunch, you felt that number 4 got stabbed in the left shoulder, and sure enough when you went down, there was the doc writing down that stabbing it through the shoulder join restricted its movement in that arm.

"I'm testing if it recovers from its injuries now so please avoid its shoulder and arm for now if you test more." He says as he passes you the book and heads up to eat.

It's now been several days since you arrived and you ran out of human flesh days ago. The food they give you doesn't sit well or seem to quench your hunger but the progress you are making is distracting you enough that you can ignore it for now. You are even getting on well with several of the others in the stadium which gives you doubts for the first time about your original plans to kill them all and feed off them. You could probably volunteer for a scavenging mission to try and get some food out there but you'd probably only manage to get hold of some shambler flesh and it was simply not the same as normal flesh. Seemed just like the toughness, the further from human they got, the less useful their flesh was.

But for now you move onto the next stage, time to make the puppet dance for you.

You concentrate hard of the feeling you get from what you presume is the remains of the shamblers mind and try to make it lift its right arm into the air with little success, however, over the next few hours you see the arm twitch and eventually it responds and you see it lifting its arm up over its head.

You lean back against the opposite wall feeling elated by your success when the doc returns.

"Hey! You've got the mother of all nose bleeds there! Let me grab some gauze." He heads into his office and returns quickly while you dab at your own nose, seems you were concentrating so hard you didn't even feel it happening. You do however now feel fairly light headed so after being cleaned up and making your excuses you head up to lie down in your tent and very unusually fall asleep for the whole evening and night.

The morning brings the final revelation and the decisions. You wake to a solid feeling of not only where the four shamblers are, but roughly what they are doing. Concentrating easily makes number 4 turn in a circle and only a little more effort is required to make the others do the same. A slight tingling at the reaches of your mind tells you that you can sense other infected out in the alleys near the stadium.

"Time to make a choice. This mind stuff seems like a muscle, the more I use it, the stronger I get. Sleeping after a breakthrough only seems to reinforce it too. In days I'm certain I'll be able to control small groups of the shamblers at the same time so I'll have to start testing on the other types next. Can't get anything from the normals other than a hazy feeling though."

You're a Harbinger and you've eaten people for years, time to flex those powers, use the shamblers to help you wipe the stadium survivors out.

You are a harbinger, but you aren't sure you want to attack these people right now. Stay playing nice as you are while you train your powers, maybe get out on some scavenges to test yourself further.

[User] You are a harbinger, but you aren't sure you want to attack these people right now. Stay playing nice as you are while you train your powers, maybe get out on some scavenges to test yourself further.

[Assistant]
You decide that attacking now is pointless, you'd not be strong enough to take out all of the armed guards without the risk of getting shot and you are getting on well with a few of them.

You spend the next few days more on guard duty and less down in the basement, flexing your abilities from further away to try and strengthen them. You think you can even reach one of two of the nearest ones out in the streets from the balcony.

Finally you talk to the doc and the Capt. and volunteer to go along with a couple of scavenging missions, a couple of days before two men from a team didn't return so they are happy for the offer of help.

Your first mission goes smoothly as it's a quick run to a relatively close store which a scout said still had some tins in its store room. For the others it's a routine food grab but for you, it's your chance to begin testing your new powers out properly.

Sure you've been able to control the shamblers inside the stadium but that was only after days spent concentrating on them. What you needed were some shamblers you hadn't tried anything on before or even some fast types. Not that you were planning on seeking them out, but if you sensed one close then you could give it a go. You did get closer to a couple of shamblers, finding that it only took you a few moments of hard concentration to get them to do simple tasks like change direction or move a specific limb. Happy with your success you help the others bring what little food there was back to the stadium and volunteered to go out again the next day.

[User] You mission 2

[Assistant]
The second mission begins the same as the first, a team of 4 sent out to check an old store you think might still have some supplies in it. This one is a little further away but it's to the West and away from the city center so your team is confident that they won't run into too much trouble.

You set out happily, planning on testing your ability to make the shamblers do more complicated tasks when you quickly sense something slightly different from before, similar to a shambler but… more complicated, where the shambler feels like the last remnants of a broken and dead mind this feels more like a mind that has been twisted and shattered, but not yet dying. You concentrate on it hard for the next few minutes as you walk and realize that it's moving about, jumping or running from spot to spot. It must be one of the fast ones or crazies.

You walk onwards and soon move out of your range to sense it but an hour or so later you sense another one ahead of you. "As if my test subjects were lining up for me" You joke to yourself as you begin trying to affect its mind. You go through the process as you had with the shamblers, concentrating on sensing them properly first, then getting an idea of their sensations and finally trying to make it react to your prodding.

It takes you about 2 hours but you finally have a good sense of what to do, its definitely a fast type infected and making them follow simple actions is only slightly different to the shamblers so by the time you reach your destination it's only a couple of streets away but you have it walking in circles on command.

"Dude, you hit your face of something?" one of the men quietly calls back to you and you realize that you have a nose bleed again. Not as bad as before but you quickly wipe it clean. "Yeh, sorry, I just get them sometimes." You say as you clean the blood off. "Guess concentrating that hard on the other infected means I miss a lot, going to have to be more careful." You think.

You quickly realize that you have all arrived at the store, and there are several more infected in the vicinity. You were concentrating so hard on the one that you missed a second fast type not far off and several nearby shamblers. The rest of your team, completely unaware of the danger just streets away, starts to head into the store to check for the supplies.

"I guess I could go for the big test now." You think to yourself

The team is contained and you can control the infected, you could use them to take them out as the first step to destroying the stadium hold out or you could force them all far away and help the stadium people for now, some of them are treating you like a real friend after all.

[User] You take the first step to wiping the stadium out, use the infected to kill the team then eat them before returning

[Assistant]
You've wasted enough time playing happy families with this small community, your three team-mates will be the first to fall and become your food as you work to wipe them all out. Maybe you'll even keep a few caged up to eat later, that would be a funny reversal, you think to yourself as you concentrate on all the surrounding infected, drawing them towards the store.

"Just going to wipe all this blood off then I'll be right in!" you call to the others before climbing on top of an old van across the street. No point in being a sitting duck incase the control isn't as strong as you hope.

In moments the nearest shambles and fast type appear. "Got about 6 shamblers and two fast types once the other arrives, should be enough" You wait for the second fast type, holding the infected at bay a few metres from the store, it's harder to stop them once they can hear and smell the human flesh inside but you find, as with all your powers, that as soon as you master it once, it becomes very easy to do again.

You edge them closer to the store until finally one of the men begins walking outside with a bag. You send the fast types rushing at him and he barely has time to react before them knock him to the ground and start feeding off him. The shamblers are only a few feet behind and also start biting into him, ensuring he is dead before the other two scavengers run to the door, guns ready.

The fast types don't respond instantly and you have to force with all of your will to make them stop feeding and go after the two in the doorway however the seconds lost doing this gets one on them shot and badly injured. You can feel its organs giving out so you ignore it now and concentrate on the other one. It makes it close enough to bite into one of the men's arm and you get lucky. It seems the vaccine isn't protecting him from direct exposure since you see his actions slowing down and the strange haze you sense from normal humans diminishes before your eyes. You send the rest of the nearby infected inside after the last survivor. You feel him taking down four of them but finally he gets bitten and overwhelmed.

The infected make no move to come after you despite your proximity so you climb down and take your time to feed off your former team mates.

[User] You tIme to get back to the stadium for part two

[Assistant]
You grab one of the men's bags, partly full of tins, and carefully clean any trace of blood off your face. Leaving the guns behind, you bash in the head of the slowly dying fast type to make it look like you fought, then head back to the stadium. Once close you start running and panting a little for effect. The guards see you some distance away and they are already with guns aimed past you at the street when you get close. "They swarmed us, I was the only one fast enough to get away!" you call up. The gate opens and you are ushered inside quickly before seeing it being barricaded again from the inside.

You tell your story about seeming to be ambushed by them when you were in the store a couple more times and it seems like everyone is buying it. Just a few days before the other scavengers to loose teammates told a similar story after all.

You are given the rest of the day and the next one off from duties and spend it relaxing in your tent, simply prying with your mind as far as you could and drawing any infected you find, closer to the stadium. It seems that wherever you leave them, they stay. Sure they wander around nearby streets and buildings sometimes but never too far from where they started and they seem to usually return there.

By dinner of the second day you have a fair number of shamblers and 1 fast type in the surrounding alleyways and buildings and you hear over dinner that everyone is sure that the harbinger had returned. Seem like this sort of thing fitted right into their suspicions. Time to get to work, the food here feels like its poisoning you now the more you eat of it.

You have your army ready and know the enemy defenses perfectly; they think you are one of their defenders after all. At night the doc often sleeps in his office and there are only two guards so you are sure you can get the 4 shamblers out to go wild inside then all you'll need is to get some on the ones from outside into the stadium to complete your victory. You are considering the best way to do this when you sense all the infected you brought close suddenly begin leaving towards the South and you cannot bring them back no matter how hard you concentrate.

The last one pauses and you can feel that it seems to be waving at you for a few minutes, beckoning you after it almost, before it turns and heads South and eventually out of your range to sense it.

"Well that's odd."  You think as you watch it vanish along with your immediate attack plans. "Best bet is that they were right and the original harbinger is back, seems he wants to talk to me too."

The morning will bring a new decision to make, Go to meet the other harbinger or ignore his summons and take down the stadium yourself with your own army; you'll just need to gather a new one first.

[User] You go to meet the harbinger

[Assistant]
You wake first thing in the morning to find no other infected have come near to the stadium. "At least he is respectful" you think as you get up. You share a meal with the others as you ponder your next move; however it's hard to pass on the chance to meet another like you.

You go to see the Capt. right after eating.

You find him with one of his soldiers looking over a map of this part of the city, probably planning some more scavenges. "Um, Sir, mind if we talk?"

He looks up at you then waves the other soldier out leaving the two of you alone. "So what can I help you with?" He asks, having already turned back to his map.

"Well, before I came here I stashed a few things of importance to me, memento's and the like. I want to go retrieve them. I didn't really expect this place to be inhabited so I stashed them near my old place to the South."

The Capt. quickly asks. "Is it within half a day's walk of here?"

"No, its going to take 2 or three days to get there and back." You reply.

At first he does not respond and you are finally about to speak up and break the silence when he gives his answer. "I can't send a team with you, too dangerous but I won't stop you going alone either. It's your choice, please send Harry back in."

You shrug and head outside, finding a soldier waiting outside "The Capt. said to go back in now." You tell him as you head off back to you tent. "Well I guess that was Harry at least." You think as you grab your things and head to the gate. You are let out without a second glance, they trust you now afterall, and begin walking South to where you saw the shambler last.

About halfway there you sense it again, South-East of its original position. It waves again and you follow after it, letting it stay a few blocks ahead of you as it leads you South and East of your position.

You walk for the rest of the day before finally being lead to a small shop that looks like it might have been a high class gentleman's tailor before the infection spread. Very heavy duty shutters are down over most of the windows however the door is uncovered and propped open. You try and sense inside and feel something akin to a bright, almost blinding light inside. You quickly stop trying to sense it but you kept your mind open long enough to realize that there are hundreds of infected of different types in the surrounding buildings.

[User] You meeting the man

[Assistant]
You hear a chuckle from inside and hear an old man's voice calling to you. "Oh don't worry so much and come on in, your abilities will grow stronger in time, you are simply less practiced than me!"

You start walking to the door and see and old man with a broom sweeping some near invisible dirt out of the door before standing aside for you to enter.

You walk past him to find yourself in the fanciest tailors you've ever seen, with suits you never could have afforded before the infection spread. You glance again at the old man then back to the suits. He is clearly well dressed but not in anything as fine as the clothing in the store.

You hear him chuckling again as pulls the shutters down and closes the door leaving everything in a dim sort of twilight. "Yes I am the tailor not the customer. I made every suit in this store to sell to others but it never felt quite right to wear one myself." You can make out that he is looking you up and down, clearly not bothered by the lack of light. "You on the hand might need some new clothing; I'll adjust something for you later. For now let's head upstairs." He heads off still holding his broom and you follow him closely, trying not to bump into anything until you reach the second floor and light from the open windows makes it easier to see.

You let him get several feet ahead of you to see him better. He is clearly a frail old man and you begin wondering if he is really strong enough to be the other harbinger when he moves faster than you thought possible and in right in front of you, pinning your arms in a grip that doesn't even let you move an inch. "Yes indeed I am the harbinger, and yes I am defiantly strong enough." He releases you and walks over to a small chair beside a table covered with slices of meat. "Come have a seat, and yes, I can read your mind. Your powers are developing but they are still in their infancy, I will train you to use them properly so long as you don't disappoint me."

You take a seat and immediately recognize the smell of the meat as fresh human. The old man smiles. "Yes I usually have a couple hanging around in old cellars to keep them fresh for me, my servants bring them to me when they find them and I divide them between myself and my horde."

He is clearly expecting you to eat, so you do. It's not as if you haven't eaten humans before and its nice to have human flesh again, it makes your whole body feel better. "Oh good, I was a little worried that you had sided with humans and might refuse to eat the meat but that's the first test past. Here is the second." The old man says to you as a shambler comes in through a previously closed door and begins to lunge for you.

Your old reflexes tell you to go for your bat but your new practice kicks in and you reflexively lash out with your mind instead. You see it suddenly stumble back against a wall as if physically struck, before sinking down and not moving any more. "Ah, and the second test passed too, you didn't have to kill it though you know?" The old man says to you.

"Erm, sorry about that, it was reflexive and I've only been using this ability for a couple of weeks, I didn't know I could kill them." You suddenly feel your nose bleeding again and quickly pich it to prevent the blood pouring out on your clothing.

The old man gives you a very happy look. "Only a couple of weeks, well that is great news, it means you are developing very quickly. The quicker the development, the higher the potential! Well I accept you as my student. Over the next few weeks I will be training you in all aspects of your gift, starting with shielding your mind from others, we aren't the only ones out there you know."

The old man pauses and looks at you intently. "That is of course if you choose to learn from me, if so I will teach you for a few weeks and you will then aid me in destroying the last holdouts in the stadium, the greater plans will be revealed after that. Or you can leave now."

You glance around; he isn't holding a weapon or acting threateningly. You also are pretty sure he didn't lock the shutter and a glance out the window shows that the streets are clear. You try and sense the infected in the area again but try and block the old man's mind out as you do so to prevent the painful blindness from before. It somewhat works and you sense that all the infected are right where they were when you sensed them the first time. He clearly isn't making any obvious moves to trap you.

Choose to stay and learn, it's what you are after all, a harbinger.

Back out politely and head back to the stadium, you were happier there and the old man is a bit creepy.

[User] You choose to stay and learn, it's what you are after all, a harbinger.

[Assistant]
You think about it carefully, he doesn't appear to be making any moves to trap you and you were getting to like some of the people back in the stadium, but wasn't your reason for going there in the first place to eat them? It only makes sense to learn from the experienced harbinger while you can.

You are about to tell him you choice when you realize he is practically grinning from ear to ear. "I can read your mind still, remember? An excellent choice you made too. You thought it through and weighed up the pro's and Con's. Excellent, you will learn very quickly under my tutelage, now eat up, there is much to be done!" He says to you happily as he tucks into the meat on the table.

You join him in the meal and feel better about your choice already, predators were made to eat their pray were they not?

[User] You training time

[Assistant]
You spend the next couple of weeks with the old man, you have three meals a day of human flesh and spend most of your waking hours training your mind, you used to sleep only a handful of hours a night but now you collapse into bed each night with the beginnings of a headache.

He trains you hard, you constantly get nosebleeds but he doesn't push you too hard, it turns out that if you push past the pain of a headache, you can actually fry your own abilities and drive yourself mad, so you are trained until the headaches come, then you rest and eat until they pass.

The training pays off quickly. Within days of accepting your role as a harbinger and training to improve your abilities you feel faster and stronger than ever before, you begin seeing better in the dark and you can control an entire horde while barely trying. You even learn the subtle differences involved in affecting the fast types and mutants minds. You train briefly with crazies but the old man teaches you only enough to fend them off mentally rather than full control "They are unpredictable, forget commands nearly instantly and make terrible subjects who require your constant attention and concentration only to have them be barely more useful as combatants than shamblers." He told you at one point, and you felt you had to agree. Their minds with the strange mix of haziness and cracks seemed to always shift and move even while you were trying to grasp them.

By the end of the second week you have fully embrace your role as the new alpha predator or the planet. Sure you were once human, but now you are more, evolved beyond what humans thought was possible. You see in nearly pitch black, you move at speeds you couldn't have imagined and you can punch through solid doors without more than a few scratches on your skin. You can now easily control an extensive horde without much effort and direct small teams separately without difficulty.

One important thing you learned though was that if another harbinger has control of an infected mind, it is extremely difficult to take it from him. The old man can still take infected from you due to his extensive practice but you never come slightly close to taking one from him. It means if another harbinger attacks you, then at least you can try to keep your own troops under command.

[User] You more mental exercises

[Assistant]
You are preparing for the days mental exercises when the old man comes to you. "I did have some interesting exercises for you today however we have more pressing news; I have had my scouts watching the Stadium and their scouts. They have been reaching further and further east in the clear attempt to find a way through to the Eastern colony. Obviously we cannot let that happen, they know too much about the truth of harbingers and my army requires food, not to mention myself of course.

You nod along; it would be good to test out your new abilities on live subjects and it's not as if you care about the normal anymore, you are better than them. Their predator. The old man goes through his things and pulls out an old map of the bus routes through the city.

"It looks like they are planning to keep to a main route." He begins. "They have been keeping their main scouting to larger open roads which lead directly East so my assumption is that they plan to move through at speed. Now the tricky thing is, before I brought down the stadium the first time, they had some military jeeps with mounted guns, I had originally presumed that I had destroyed them all however their actions suggest otherwise. We have to assume at least 1 vehicle so I will be blockading the road here." He points to the map indicating a section of road just after a large corner. "this way they will only see it once they round the bend and I can then block their retreat.

Obviously normally I would co-ordinate everything myself, however with you here I can give you some of my forces to control, leaving me with much better fine control of the assault horde."

You look over the map for a few moments. "What will my job be then?" You ask.

The Old man smiles, you will have roughly 1/3 or the army, your job will be to close the trap!" He gives you a big smile. "Their captain is an annoyingly smart man and will have backup routes and plans so you must keep your horde hidden until they pass the designated position then close the trap instantly. You can then of course join in the assault from their rear while I handle the front and flanks."

There isn't much to argue about so again you simply nod along, you'd rather he split his forces with you 50/50 however you know he is still significantly more powerful than you mentally. You can hold him at bay for a few moments but he can still force his way into your mind whereas you can't even dent his current defenses you know you are rapidly improving though and you hold out a few seconds longer every time.

The old man rolls his map up and carefully stores it away. "Time for us to be heading out, they could leave any day now and we must be prepared for them!"

[User] You heading out to the ambush

[Assistant]
You take a leisurely pace with the old man and bring your horde along with you, from various trips out around the city you have gathered over 50 infected including 2 mutant cats which you found during a trip to the edge of the city centre, not as strong as the dogs but frighteningly agile and fast. You're pretty happy with your little horde however as you walk you come into range of more and more of the Old man's 'storage points', buildings where he places large numbers of infected for use later. By the end of the day you can sense hundreds of infected moving around you.

The Old man clearly notices you trying to sense all of them and laughs. "They took me many months to build up again, a large number were originally from the stadium hold-outs before I destroyed it, others I have scavenged where I could to re-build my forces.

You have heard something similar before, the old man clearly lost his hord at some point and you don't believe it was during the stadium battle, there is clearly something he is holding back from you.

You finally arrive at a small apartment block that is less damaged than the rest in the area and the Old man takes you inside. "This place will have to do, we are only two roads South of where the stadium people should pass so we can begin preparations in the morning.

You head to sleep thinking about what it would mean to wipe out the last survivors in the stadium, and probably the North-West of the city, the Old man had been thorough in hunting them all down.

[User] You setting up time

[Assistant]
With first light you wake and check on your horde "Still right where I left you." You think as you dress and head down into the street. You had left them all locked in a small hospital clinic you passed a couple of blocks South, you thought it was funny to pack it full of infected. You gather them together near the apartment when the Old man comes to you. "Interesting news, it seems they have left the stadium a few minutes ago!" You turn West and concentrate hard, it's still many miles away but you get a faint sense of haziness there.

"Now now, don't strain yourself, you are not practiced enough to sense properly over that distance, it's even at the limit of my own abilities." He looks over your Horde. "Excellent, all gathered, well you better get over to the North side and prepare to close the trap, remember that they have a jeep so just standing in the road won't cut it!" he heads off cheerfully and you feel a large number of infected in a nearby building leave his control, they must be your part of the horde. You take control of them and along with your own horde you head North to look for some good blockade materials.

As you pass North you begin noticing a change, the closer to the Highways, the more cars there are. "Huh, they all went for the highway to escape and blocked each other in." you mumble as you look around. "Well at least the cars might make the blockade easy enough.

You begin commanding your shamblers to start pushing the cars and taking off handbrakes when you notice the bus on a side road. A large solid looking city bus, easily capable of blocking the main road by itself. "Hah, almost too easy!" you say aloud as you redirect all of your forces to the bus and maneuver it pointing south, it would have to go round a bend to get into position but any closer and they could spot you as they pass so you put a shambler into the driving seat and take careful control of its mind so you can ensure the bus gets where it needs to go.

Then you wait, you carefully send your senses out West again a few times, not pushing it like before and after an few tries you begin to sense them coming closer and closer, moving at a solid pace. "They must all be jogging or running," you suddenly panick and this they have enough vehicles for all of them but as they approach you realize that they are too spread out to be packed into a vehicle.

You settle back and track their progress, you have at least an hour to watch them approach and after a few minutes begin picking out individuals in the larger haze, you then start trying to assign names to them and think back to your time with them. It occurs to you for the first time in two weeks that you didn't really need to go through with this. You could betray the old man and help the people from the stadium; they did treat you like a friend after all.

Stop concentrating on the haze; it's causing you to think funny. You're a predator and they are just pray

Watching the haze so closely for so long must have brought these thoughts on, however they are correct, why not help them. They helped you before and you are sure they would accept you if you saved them.

[User] You look away from the haze and attack

[Assistant]
You quickly shake off the feelings that the haze is giving you. You concentrate on your little army for a time and quickly feel the thoughts of helping recede and die. "So it's dangerous to concentrate in the normal's mind for too long. Well at least I learned it now."

You are committed and ready; you track the little convoys progress as they get closer and closer along the main road. You avoid concentrating closly on them but they are near enough for you to resolve the shapes of the haze into individual people without concentrating on them. Large crowd following behind a Jeep fits best, that means you plan will work as the jeep won't have time to back out of the trap.

You finally hear the old man pop trying to politely pop back into your head. He could force his way in but recently he politely 'Taps' on your defenses when he wishes to talk mind to mind. You let him in and immediately hear his voice in your mind. "Excellent, they are proceeding exactly as predicted. The trap is set, are you ready?" You quickly mentally go over your hordes positions and plans before answering. "All set. Ready to go the moment the last normal passes by."

You feel him vanish and assume he is turning his full attention to his horde. You watch and wait as the normal pass by below you and set your horde off on their attack.

The bus starts rolling slowly but quickly picks up speed and within seconds you have to run to keep up with it as you control the shambler in the driver's seat to ensure it stays on course. It navigates the bend in the road with only a small scrape along an abandoned car and finally come flying out onto the main road only meters behind where the rearmost guards are standing.

You crash it into the buildings on the far side and check your work. The front of the bus is stuck in the now partly destroyed wall of a building and the rear reaches nearly right back to the turning, there is a gap at the back where they could escape but you immediately start moving your horde through it to block them from trying.

You hear the Old man speaking and gunfire starting, the sound of a heavy machine-gun peppered with the softer cracks from rifles and know the attack had begun.

You swarm your own little horde forward to join in the assault, you immediately feel several fall with bullet wounds but the jeeps gun suddenly goes silent and the hordes quickly over-run the convoy, tearing the normals apart.

[User] You time to clean up

[Assistant]
The clean-up doesn't take long. There are two 'survivors' from the assault who are taken away by the old man to be kept fresh until he was ready to kill and eat them, the rest are given to the horde along with their own dead and everything is consumed within minutes. The Old man finally makes a personal appearance and heads your way.

"Excellent work, the bus was a nice touch, blocked most of the road without the fuss of lots of smaller cars!"

You accept his thanks and begin organizing your horde again to count up the losses while you think about your response.

"Well I lost nearly a dozen, including wounded I had the others eat. Not bad considering the number of guns they had. How did yours fair?"

The Old man looks like he is concentrating for a moment "Nearly three dozen, my left flank took the brunt of the heavy gun before I silenced it." acceptable losses though to ensure the future of the horde.

It looks like he is going to head away when you call him back. "Before we head back, you said this was the beginning and you would tell me more after we were finished here. Well we are now, so what is the big secret?"

You are unsure how he will react to the sudden questioning but he simply smiles. "Excellent, thinking like a proper predator and looking for the next pray, I very much approve young man!" He waves you towards the jeep as he talks. "Well firstly we needed our horde to be fed and to ensure there were no enemies behind us, which was the aim of this little raid." He hops inside and restarts the engine. "This little jeep is a lovely surprise though and will be very useful, you see the infected are too awkward to use guns by themselves, completely lack the co-ordination and fine control to be effective. You can of course fine control a couple yourself to be able to use them, however the concentration required means that you lose most of your control on the rest of the horde. This heavy gun however might well be worth that risk, especially with the two of us." He pauses as if deciding how to explain before waving you into the passenger seat and beginning to drive back South with both of you directing your hordes to follow.

[User] You finally the reveal

[Assistant]
"I have an enemy" He begins "Well two actually. They are harbingers like us, well more like me, we became harbingers during the first wave of the virus, before the vaccine and before it became airborne so we have had years to practice. They joined up together and set themselves up in the very center of the city with their own hordes of powerful mutants. They quickly took control of most of the city center and set up a colony of sorts, they actually let normals live there in a reasonable number so long as they obey the rules and treat the pair like Gods in their little playground."

He slows the jeep as he directs groups into holding buildings then continues when he is satisfied they are locked in.

"I found all this out right after I had destroyed the stadium and raised my strongest horde, I was overconfident and waltzed right into the city center to add powerful mutants to my ranks, the outskirts were all the normal types of dogs and cats among the shamblers etc. but I had heard that further in there were other types including mutated humans and I wanted to find those. I ran right into the 'Lords of the New City's' horde as they call themselves. They indeed had a couple of the human mutants and they tore through my ranks but I had greater numbers by far and won the first battle. That's the first I knew of their existence and they of mine. It seems that they had the larger and more powerful hordes overall but they were spread throughout the city center and I had just run into a small group. I obviously pressed the attack as I hoped to reach their little colony before the growing hordes I could sense on my flanks reached me but I was a little too late, they resized I was alone."

For the first time you see clear annoyance on the old man's face as he speaks. "One of them launched a mental attack on me, trying to invade my mind to stop me. It was the strongest attack I had faced but I was just as strong as him and fended him off easily, sadly the second one then attacked my horde. I knew I could not defend both against two minds so as I shielded myself, they whittled my horde down and took control of large numbers of them. By the time their re-enforcements arrive I had lost over three quarters of my horde and had to flee, leaving almost all the rest behind as well to cover my escape. That's why I need you; I've been training my mind every day since then in order to attack again however I knew I needed an ally, a second mind to shield the horde as I shielded us."

You nod quietly as he speaks. "So this is why he needed me and took all the time to train and test me." You think to yourself.

"Well it's an interesting proposition but I'd want to know more before we attack" You respond.

"Of course, of course, I've been researching them since the last battle and have all the information you need back at my little shop!" The Old man happily responds. It seems the prospect of revenge puts him into a good mood.

[User] Back at the apartment

[Assistant]
Once back at the apartment above his shop you look over all the information the Old man had gathered. They were a pair of Harbingers now calling themselves the 'Lords of the New City'. They ruled a colony of around a couple of hundred normal survivors, they had no fear of them trying to escape as they city center was still flooded with mutants and other infected. The old man didn't know why they kept them all, maybe as an insurance supply of food. They control a vast horde between them with groups spread around in a large circle to completely surround the colony.

"Well it's not too much but it's a good start, I assume you have a cunning plan?" you say.

"As cunning as a fox!" He replies, grinning to himself about what must be a reference to something. "Well two options really, the first option is the obvious assault plan. We both push into the city center and grab every infected we sense to add to our horde then attack their little base right away. I know there are far too many infected in there for them to control them all so we would probably reach our limit of control as well before we fought. After that it's a matter of shielding ourselves and the horde as we attack them and wipe them out. Once they are gone we can overrun the pesky colony to the East of the city too using the more powerful mutants. The other option is for you to go in undercover and help destroy them from the inside as I attack from outside, it's a lot riskier for you, however if you physically attack when they are mentally attacking me you might be able to take them out before the fight even really begins."

The old man is clearly leaving the choice up to you now, he needs you after all.

[User] You frontal attack, you aren't going to walk right into enemy territory alone.

[Assistant]
You have no plans to wander into enemy territory alone without backup so you select the frontal assault. The Old Man nods and starts putting the map away. "Excellent! We leave at dawn!"

You head to bed, excited for what was to come.

As dawn breaks you are both well on your way to the city centre, collecting every infected you find on the way. The Old Man mostly walks in silence but he gives you little bits of advice every now and then "We face two enemies so each attack one, send your horde attack orders first so you need to concentrate on them less later." You always nod and add it to your information list of how to fight other harbingers, it seems though that the best tactic is simply overwhelming force. Impress upon them your superiority by outright crushing them.

It takes a few hours but you finally reach the outskirts of the skyscrapers and start sensing an incredible number of infected. At first you grab every find you can sense but it quickly becomes clear that there are so many here in the towering forest of buildings that you can afford to be picky.

A few hours more and each of you is trailing over a thousand infected, with a huge number of those mutants of one variety or another. The Old Man cuts in again "The Lords took every human mutant in the city they could find, moved them close to them so we can't capture them, they are the hordes main targets." You once more nod as you walk. It will be interesting to take a few of them once you kill your rivals, after all this was where you were meant to be wasn't it. Leading a horde, devouring everything in your path and crushing your enemies. You glance left; you would have to kill the Old Man after too the battle. Can't have him trying to kill you or steal the humans.

Suddenly the world becomes clearer and crystalizes for you. It makes perfect sense really, you are not just an Alpha Predator, you are THE Alpha, the rest of existence is for you to rule and devour as you see fit. Anything that opposes you will be crushed and utterly destroyed without mercy.

You see the Old Man suddenly look at you with suspicion, you are about to lash out at him for daring to look at you that way when he speaks "Good, you are even stronger!" A compliment, acceptable, you won't kill him yet, you need to use him first. You simply bod to him and you both continue until you feel the army ahead of you.

[User] You battle in red

[Assistant]
The army ahead of you seems vast, even with two thousand at your back your hordes are dwarfed by those ahead, and you can sense strange minds amongst them which must mean the human mutants.

"They knew we were coming! No matter, we crush them now!"

The Old man does not wait and you don't either, arraying a horde against you is a futile insult and you will crush all those responsible, feasting on their flesh as your final victory over them.

You charge your horde at theirs and lash out at the glowing green minds you see half way up a building ahead of you. You feel the old man do the same and each of you slams your anger against the enemy.

They seem prepared and you hit against what seems like both of their wills joined together into one shield and it holds, but you can feel its weakness, you know it won't hold forever.

You keep pushing, ignoring everything else but attacking their minds, anything the Old Man taught you is ignored as you are better than him anyway and you will prove that shortly.

You can feel their defenses weakening moment by moment, cracks forming and barriers failing, you are stronger, the rightful ruler and devourer of humanity and no weak self-proclaimed Lords can stand in your way. You feel the attack weaken suddenly and spare a shred of concentration to check on what the Old Man is doing. You immediately see his rage has grown and know why.

Your forces are being decimated by the enemy, they must have been holding back some of their concentration to direct their forces against you. You let out a hiss the Old Man had lost this way before, how was he not prepared for it again, he was too weak a tool for you to use. You almost lash out at him there an then but the main threat was the Lords and their army. You quickly scan the battle to see what was happening.

Your hordes had charged blindly, right into a huge block of shamblers who had soaked up all of the initial attack and taken the brunt of the damage like cannon fodder, then while your army was busy tearing shamblers and other useless infected apart the enemies mutants, including humanoids had clearly just torn right through your forces. The little extra control had turned the battle into a one sided massacre in seconds.

You let out an angry roar and concentrate hard on attacking again, leaving the Old Man to try and salvage some of his infected. You lash out hard again at the two minds but without the Old man, you are no longer crushing them, they are holding you at bay, you fall further into rage and push with all your might, thinking that you are still make some headway against them when you feel something hitting your own defenses. You had neglected them and pain shoots into your mind as you quickly shore them up but a small light seems to slip in a crack and your entire mind seems to suddenly explode with pain and colours, blocking all of your senses for several seconds.

You stagger back and rub your temples until your mind recovers, it was some cheap trick by them, your defenses were still intact. The old man laughs at you "You fell for such a weak trick? I trained you better than that! Now attack them while I salvage the horde you threw away!" You simply hiss at him then turn back to your attack, they wouldn't get away with it.

Again you lash out and again at the peak of your attack your mind explodes in colours and lights. This time you hear the Old Man swearing when you return and see that the battle has been totally lost, there are also several humanoid mutants moving your way at incredible speed, some small but ridiculously fast, others larger than delivery vans yet still moving at speed.

You try and think of the best plan when the Old Man insults you again "Weakling, you couldn't even distract them properly!" This time was enough and you lash out at him only to be met by his attack, you strive against each other and this time you are almost equally matched.

You suddenly see him scream in pain and clutch his head, you try to push the advantage but your own head explodes in pain again and you realize too late that in your rage, you ignored the other enemies. As your senses come back to you, you see the fist of the monstrosity that reached you first. "It's first is the size of my entire torso." You think right before it slams into you.

You feel your entire ribcage crushing inward and destroying your organs, then your back hits something hard and blood is forced out of your mouth like a fountain. But you are still alive. You try to move, to get away but as you raise your head you see several of the smaller ones coming for you. The big ones now seem more concerned with the Old Man who is screaming at them "I am the End of You! The Endmaster! You cannot stop me!" sadly he is wrong as you see them catch him and tear his upper body in half before beginning to eat him.

You turn back to the ones near you, they seem small, almost weak compared to the others until one moves close faster than you even though possible for something to move, one moment it was several metres away and the next it was beside you and your arm was gone. The others then move and you barely feel it as they remove your head.

[User] The Old man lead you into a trap, kill him now!

[Assistant]
The Old man was too weak and stupid for you to have followed all this time. You were going to wait to prove that to him but leading you into a trap was the last straw.

You stop your attack on the green minds in the city, you can destroy them when they are less prepared for you. You lash out at the Old Man's mind, feeling him instantly recoil and falter.

"You see Old man! I am the Alpha here, not you! You are a weak excuse for a Harbinger, no wonder you lost!" You press the attack and feel him trying to block you but then you sense the green minds attacking him too and his defenses shatter. You barely register the surprise mixed with rage which crosses his face as you force your attack into his mind, burning it with the red flames.

You watch his nose, eyes and ears spouting out blood and feel him die there and then, mind destroyed by your attack.

You laugh aloud in triumph. "At least you will make a fitting meal for me!" You announce as you grab his body.

In your rage you had forgotten about your real enemy and they now attack you. Pressing on your mind and attempting to destroy it the way you did the Old Man's. You lash out in return and they back off for a moment but you can already feel the difference in power. You know you could beat one of them but the two could hold you off until their horde reached you.

You run to the Jeep and throw the Old Man's body inside. The attack has returned and you find that your defense feels a lot weaker than your attack. When you lash out with your mind it feels like spears of flame, able to destroy anything but flames used for a defense feel less substantial and you know they won't hold out for too long.

You floor the gas pedal and start speeding away from the city Centre, back to the North West, You even know the perfect place to make your new base, the old Stadium is empty and defensible after all.

As you get further away the attacks weaken then stop. You expect to feel your horde being stripped away but it seems like they don't need too and you simply lose control as the distance gets too far. "I even added to their defenses now" you growl to yourself as you reach more familiar streets.

[User] The Empty Stadium

[Assistant]
You reach the stadium as the fuel begins to run dry, there are two spare cans on the sides full of gas though so you aren't worried and park it at the back where you find a cover big enough to hide it.

Time to start building up your empire. It will take time but you are stronger than the Old Man was and you will eventually crush the City Minds and their little haven. The Old Man had the nerve to call himself the EndMaster, as if he could end the world. Well that is your title now and you will become the ruler of the City before destroying the colony to the East.

************************************************

You have found the current end to the Evil Path, this will be extended into a larger and more complete path at a later date, I simply do not have the time to do it before the competition deadline!