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    1. Raylah 7 yrs ago
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7 yrs ago
Currently super swamped by work and having cold on the top of it, so posts will be delayed

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All right, should be finished now. I am aware that you said the history must start at 2018, but since the origin story wouldnt make so much sense, I added a little bit of the pre-war history, I hope it's ok like this.

@Superboy I originally also had that idea, but there are some major problems to figure out - food and water and other supplies might be gained through trade (but what will you trade in return?) or stealing (but then you wont be much popular), but running a lot of ships will require huge amount of fuel, so unless you occupy some oil mining platform, you wont be cruising the seas for very long.
It was early morning but the ranch was already buzzing with activity. Bob and Edward were tending to the cows and horses, Mary was feeding the hens and Anna was dragging bucket full of pig feed through the open gate to the pighouse. She stopped to look around and straighten her back for a bit, only to see George leaning over the wall from the southwestern watchtower, grinning widely.

“Care to help me?” she shouted at him.

“Nah, just enjoying the view,” he laughed and gestured to the countryside around the ranch.

Anna had to admit that it was a beautiful morning, a bit colder than usual, but view of the sun shining on the meadows around was almost poetic. “What a gentleman you are.”

“Always at your service,” he said with a small bow and disappeared beyond the wall.

Anna cursed quietly and lifted the heavy bucket again. The pigs were already waiting for her by their troughs, grunting eagerly. She emptied the bucket and wiped sweat off her forehead, turning around only to see George heading towards her.

“Ah, it seems I am too late,” he said, trying hard to sound sad.

“Oh don’t worry, I am sure that there is still plenty of work to be done,” Anna answered, irony dripping from her voice.

He just shook his head with a sad frown. “Nono, I already asked. No work left for me. You should find some for the princess though, she is acting like she is on a vacation in a five star hotel.”

Anna laughed. “Yea, I can’t really picture my daughter-in-law mucking the pigs out or milking a cow.” George raised his eyebrows. “I know,” Anna said defensively. “But what exactly do you want me to do? I can’t actually threaten to kick her out.”

“Well you can say that who doesn’t work, doesn’t eat.”

“Really? You would starve to death,” she grinned. “It will be alright. She will come around, she just needs some time to adjust.” Anna dearly hoped so. Their relationship has never been good, even at the start. Anna hoped that it was just a crazy dating phase her son would get over, but the beautiful blonde art student has wrapped him around her skinny finger. A few months later she was sitting on their wedding with a stiff smile, as she watched Ethan swear to love that witch forever.

Sighing, Anna had to admit that it was partially her fault for letting her discontent show even in front of Rachel and not really giving the girl a chance. But it had to be an ART major, for God’s sake? There weren’t many less practical fields to study. And that attitude of hers, never laying a finger on anything even remotely resembling work. Anna honestly had no idea what Ethan sees in this girl. Only after Alex had been born the relationships went from open hostility to a quiet tolerance, spiced up by a few ironic or sarcastic remarks. At least Ethan had this idea of taking his family and staying at the Oakwood ranch for a few weeks. It made things much easier now that the world was going to hell.

She realized George was talking to her. “Sorry, I spaced out a bit. What were you saying?”

“That we should go to the city.” Anna looked at him with a surprise, but he continued. “Just to Cortez, to raid what is left in Walmart and some other stores. This is the last chance to get supplies, maybe for a very long time.”

“You are right, let's tell the others.”




Ethan glimpsed at the man driving the car. He never understood what his mother sees in a man like George. Had he known that his mother was thinking the same thing about him and Rachel just an hour ago, he would have probably laughed at the idea. He always thought that Anna May was a bit crazy. He loved her, of course, but all her fears of the world ending and society collapsing and need to prepare just weren’t… the most normal thing a mother would say to her child. Ethan remembered that his father could keep her ideas on acceptable level, but ever since he died, Anna became almost obsessed. Well, now her ‘I told you so’ moment arrived, but no one was happy about it.

Sighing, he turned his head to the window. He has been in Cortez maybe twice or three times before and it always looked like a typical sleepy town. Well, if it looked sleepy before, it looks dead now, he thought. A lot of shop windows on the main street were closed, the usually busy cafés and bistros were empty, there were almost no people in the streets, no children playing on the playground. It seemed like everyone has either left the city or barricaded at home, refusing to stick a nose out.

The parking lot in front of Walmart was a sharp contrast to the empty streets. There was a lot of people there, many with large trucks or at least pickups similar to theirs. Everyone was loading large packs of bottled water, cans, even huge boxes of shampoo bottles and toilet paper.

“Let’s hope we are not too late,” George said, pulling the car into an empty parking spot. As he leaned to open the door, Ethan could see a gun in a shoulder holster, partially covered by his jacket. He shook his head, but didn’t comment, knowing he would just get another lecture on how ‘you can never be careful enough’.

The inside of the store looked like it was Black Friday and at least 80% discount on everything. Most of the shelves were empty, with just an occasional piece of goods that had been torn apart, spilled on the floor, or otherwise damaged when people were fighting over it.

“It looks like we are too late after all,” Ethan said, picking up a pack of flour, the only one left on the shelf, just to notice that the paper is torn and more than half of it is already spilled out.

George just grunted and headed to the hardware section, which wasn’t as sacked as the food section. “There we go,” he smiled and started picking up some wires, strings and other things.

“What do we need garden hoses for?” Ethan’s eyebrows went up.

“You never know.”

Seriously? Why does this man have to treat him as a child? Shaking his head, he walked to another aisle, just to get away from George for a bit. “Hmm, this might actually be useful,” he mumbled to himself, watching some machetes and axes.

A deep voice growled behind him and some large body pushed him aside. “Move away, kid.”

Ethan turned around to say something but paused when he saw a big and dangerously looking man in biker jacket. “Excuse me, sir,” he started, trying to sound as assertively as he possibly could. “But I was here first, so if you could just wait and…”

Man’s eyes narrowed and he grabbed the largest axe, pointing it to Ethan’s face. “You were saying?”

“He was saying that we are leaving.” A quiet but decisive voice made the biker turn around. They stared at each other for a while, but the man looked away first, growling something and leaving the aisle. Ethan stood there stunned, unable to think. Did someone really just threatened to kill him with an axe inside a Walmart? How did this happen?

George gave him a sympathetic look. Maybe there still was hope for this kid. “Let’s go.”

But Ethan shook his head. “We need to stop by at the pharmacy. Looks like we are going to need a lot of medical supplies.”

George nodded and smiled. “Now you are talking.”




A while later they were loading everything into the pickup truck, along with a considerable supply of bandages, antiseptics, painkillers. Ethan also prescribed some strong broad antibiotics for George, so they could pick them up right away.

“What does this cure?” George asked, puzzled by the cryptic names on the pill boxes.

Ethan just laughed. “Everything, hopefully.” Seeing the sceptical look on George’s face, he explained. “These are broad-spectrum antibiotic, which will function against multiple types of bacteria. They normally aren’t used much, because there is a general fear that the bacteria will adjust to it, rendering it completely useless. I don’t think that will be the problem now, though. These are various antivirotics and other things to help treat most common diseases I could think of on such short notice.”

“What about the uncommon ones?”

“Well, we will just have to improvise.” They laughed together and stepped inside the car. “So, when are you going to give me the ‘I told you so’ talk?”

George shook his head. “Do I have to? Man, you have much more to lose than I do. It is you who should be worried. And I think you finally realized that this is no joke or crazy talk.”

Ethan had to admit that George was right. He had a family to take care of. He might dislike George, he might think his mother is crazy, he might hate the guns and violence, but this world wasn’t for cowards. He sighed. “Looks like I’m gonna have to learn how to use a gun.”

Laughing, George nodded. “Now you are talking.”
Still working on history


Well I am aiming for technocratic dictatorship perhaps with some light slavery :D
I am placing a preliminary dibs on south part of south america - Argentina, whats left of Chile and the Andes, I have (hopefully) an interesting idea for that location.
Has the environment changed due to the nuclear war? Like nuclear winter or something like that.
So, anyone has any plot ideas? I currently dont have so much brain capacity to come up with something on my own, but I can join someone as a friend or enemy :)
Isgred was excited. This land looked so similar, yet so different from their own, she couldn’t wait to see its people. She had heard a lot of stories, of course. It seemed like people were basically owned almost like slaves, forced to live their lives where their liege lord orders them to, never being free to do whatever they want. And what was worse, their women were treated like second-class citizens, forced to serve their fathers or husbands and being beaten if they disobeyed them.

Shivers ran down Isgred’s spine with the image of never being free, never being able to choose her own destiny. Maybe it’s because of the strange god they have here. THE God, as if their was the only god in the world. Such blasphemy and arrogance to think that. From what Isgred knew, their God was rather restrictive one – ‘guiding’ the people in almost every aspect of their lives, forbidding them to resist to their lords, blaming women for everything wrong in the world, because of some tale about a ‘sin’. They even managed to take away most of the joys of making love, and that is some accomplishment.

Isgred shook her head. These people were just strange, she couldn’t wait to see them in battle. Of course, she won’t be going directly into fight and rather stay behind the lines with other healers. But as she had learned before, that didn’t necessarily mean that she wouldn’t get close to the battle. She looked around and realized that she had strayed a bit from the outpost. Originally, she just wanted to take a walk and clear her head, because she was tired, spending most of her afternoon checking on the few wounded men in the original crew of the outpost. They didn’t have a proper healer, so most injuries were just stitched together and bandaged, but none of them seemed to be very serious. There was one man, whose cut leg was stitched by someone who had most likely never held a needle in his hand before - the stitches were huge and uneven, fulfilling their purpose, but they will leave a huge and ugly scar behind. But having scars was a part of Viking life, and uglier the scar, the more fame you gained from it, so the man wasn’t complaining.

Some twig snapped not far from her. Isgred turned her head, and for a moment she thought she could see something, maybe a small figure hiding in the bushes, watching her. But when she looked closer, there was nothing. She smiled, her imagination probably running a bit too wild. In any case, she realized she shouldn’t be wandering around here alone and nearly unarmed, this was after all an enemy territory. She turned and headed back towards the camp, hearing sounds of a celebration. She had to laugh. For her people, any reason was good to celebrate, and there wasn’t a better one than an upcoming battle.

Harek had been enjoying a nice drink while watching the others dancing. He began to think about the days to come. To him they might seem like a blur, all fighting was like that to him. It was a drug that constantly drew him back in no matter how far he strayed. When he was in the fight he enjoyed it unlike like anything else, but when he was resting like he was now he struggled to not see the screaming faces of those he killed. Harek shook his head and tried to focus on having fun. He took another drink from the mug and stood up, looking around. Taking a deep breath he began to look around for something to distract him from the dark thoughts in the back of his mind. He saw the priestess, who had led the ritual back at the port, across the field and decided that she would be an interesting character. On his way he grabbed more drinks, one for him and one for her. As he approached her he nodded his head in greeting and smiled.

“Good day, come to join the party?”

Isgred was smiling and nodding her head in the same rhythm as the music, lost in her mind a little bit. She turned to the man that came to her and her smile got even wider. She remembered him from the sacrificial ceremony, he was hard to miss, even more now with his wolfskin covering most of his face. While she didn’t know him in person, she knew who he was – the pelt marked him as one of the personal warriors of Odin, which was something Isgred deeply respected and admired.

“Good evening. Yes, I believe there is never a bad time to enjoy some music and a mug of ale. And night before a battle seems even better time for enjoying pleasures that life can offer,” she answered, rocking to the rhythm of the song. “But I imagine you know all about that. My name is Isgred.

“There is not much that is more true. My name is Harek.” He handed a drink to her and smiled. “It is always good to have a holy person on a raid. I always seem to be stabbed less at least.” Harek took a long drink from his mug and set it down. He held out his hand towards Isgred, “Wanna dance?” Eh Harek knew he was pretty drunk and he was no poet sober, so he decided to just go for it.

Isgred took a long sip from her drink. She was quite surprised that Harek had asked her to dance, people were usually keeping their distance from her. While she loved the life in service of the Gods, sometimes she did feel a bit lonely. ‘Well, what the hell,’ she thought and smiled. “Of course.” She grabbed his hand and let him guide her to the other dancing raiders. “It is an honor to meet a true warrior of Odin.” She put one hand on his shoulder, feeling the strong muscles under his shirt. The music was loud, so were the people around, all jumping around and singing and drinking. Isgred smiled and closed her eyes to enjoy the music.
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