The Highway

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"What'cha thinking of doing today?" Annie said as she scanned the crowd for a familiar face. "Do you think we could go exploring today? I know you said the Press is safer but it's hot and boring up there." The kid said in a childish complaint.

"You better keep your mouth quiet about that. What do you think the Raiders will do if they hear you talk like that?" Tia said cutting the child off before she continued to complain. "I know your parents didn't teach you to act like this. Remember, I grew up with your father. What do you think he would say if he heard you right now?" Although the woman knew she was going a little too far with her words, Tia knew she had to cut this sort of attitude at the bud. The kid was learning to speak out her thoughts but she still had a lot to learn about who she talked about such information to and Tia knew it was only a matter of time before the child slipped and one of the Raiders or another slave would hound on her for what would possibly come out of her mouth.

"But everyone else compla..." Annie started to say before she noticed Tia's warning gaze. "It's true though, people hate it here." The child mumbled barely loud enough for Tia to hear.

However Tia knew that the child was right. Annie wasn't the only one that didn't like it here, hated it too. Tia wished she could reassure the child that they would make their escape soon but that seemed like a dangerous move on her part. They were not ready yet. If they were going to escape, they needed allies. Preferably she hoped for those allies to be human. Robots could work too since besides the few crooked people, most tinkerers had the wellbeing of humanity in mind. The others though, mutants she wasn't too sure about and trusting them for the sake of Annie's wellbeing didn't sit well with her. Even the Raiders that could be bought at the right price seemed a little too chancy to her.

"Hey look, it's Duncan." Annie said with excitement, her past transgressions aside. "Can we go say hi? Please?"

"Well," Tia said in a mock tone as if she was about to say no. She could see the pleading look in the child's face and chuckled, her facade broken. "Okay. Just remember not to cause any trouble."

With a nod, the child was off with a dash with a grin on her face.

"Of course, the first thing you do. You decide to do something that will grab someone's attention and potentially cause trouble. I explicitly said not to cause trouble so what the hell are you doing?" Tia said mumbling as she followed behind, slower due to not being able to weave around the crowd of people as the small child was able to do due to her size.

"Duncan!" Annie said catching up to the man. "What'cha going to do today? Tia doesn't want me to go to the water because she says it's dangerous but I don't wanna go to the Press. I'm not allowed to say it's boring because Tia said I would get in trouble but I don't like it up there. Do you like the Press? I think exploring would be more fun! Don't you agree?" The child said, pausing only to take a breath before continuing with her excited rant.

"If you want him to answer you, you need to stop and let the man talk Annie." Tia said catching up to the child. "Sorry about her, she can get a little too chatty sometimes and forgets to keep her mouth shut." Tia said scoldingly towards Annie.
 
Duncan listened carefully to the girl with a small smile on his face. He nodded as she spoke quite quickly and well for someone of her age. When she finished, he reponsed as he rubbed his orange beard, "Well Annie, today I talked to that noisy robot we live with and we're making plans to go on a... vacation. Though I'm certainly unsure when I can get the required things to go on our trip. When we get home, I'll talk about it more, mkay?"

Duncan then turned to Tia and asked, "If... I could get this vacation to work... would you both come with me?" It was hard to tell from his usual demenor but Duncan was most certainly shy talking to Tia.
 
Virginia listened to the robot, but just shrugged. Don't get her wrong, she liked the Justifier, but talking about her problems was something that she would rather not do. She watched the robot walk away and frowned when a drop of rain hit her nose.

"Great." With a sigh, Virginia walked towards the gates and got in line, and just then she let her mind wander freely. She needed a plan to get out of here, quickly. She could feel her sanity slowly dropping by each day that goes by. Countless plans ran inside her head while she bit her nails, an habit she picked up not so long ago. As each idea passed through her head, she started to realize that making a plan work out all by herself was going to be rather difficult. Alright. So, step 1. Find allies. Step 2, bust their way out. Step 3, survive. Perfect.

Her frown turned into a deep scowl because of the rain, which was kind of weird. Before her infection, she didn't have a problem with rain, but now she hated it. Her body felt heavy, and she didn't like the way her movements became kinda stiffy. Anyway. Allies. Right. Her eyes scanned the camp, pausing when they reached the Justifier. He was a good choice, brave, strong, and Virginia liked him. Then, Duncan. He and Justifier seemed to get along, so yeah. The woman and the kid, kids were fun, so hell yeah. With a dumb smile on her face, she made a discreet victory motion. She'll have to find more people, but for now it was good.

But first things first: work. Despite her plans to get the fuck out of there, she still was a slave. Virginia didn't appreciate having a bullet through her head, thank you very much. So, all she did was stand in line while wearing a smug smile. Oh, things were going to get exciting.
 
[[Alright, I've read and caught up. Sorry for the short Slave updates, I promise they'll get larger and more detailed once you start heading up. I'm just letting you guys plan and develop characters. Because when the Slave updates get larger, the Raider updates will get shorter because they'll be on a boat traveling to the village.]]

Village of Mickey's Tamale Shack

After some chatting with each other you both proceed forward, you can hear the 'leaders' planning out the attack. Upon closer inspection of the table you see that it's a more zoomed in map of New York with all the street names listed, the map has been clearly marked and has several little green army men placed in several marked buildings on the map.

The markings on the map shows arrows coming from several buildings across the street from an encircled building that has been labeled, "The Village of Tamale". The army men (after some educated guessing) appear to be 'squads' that will be stationed in the arrowed buildings.

The bandit leader looks up, "Oh. Sorry, I didn't hear you come in; firing that Deagle we found without ear protection... bad idea... very bad idea. I can't hear shit now.", he says slowly pacing around the table to approach you two. The leader's name is Devin, he has a narrow face with trusting grey eyes; he stands at about 5'7" ft and is of average build; his most notable feature is his elegantly trimmed black hair that makes him look more like a lawyer then a ruthless bandit chief.

"Sorry to ramble on like that, so I'll just cut the chatter and get straight to business.", He says quickly circling back to his spot behind the table. "There's this village that's built inside of an old Tamale Shop that I used to frequent before the storm, and I want this place back. It has tons of preserved foods and frozen tamales that probably stayed well refrigerated in the cold.", He explains to you. "What makes it even better? It's a village of mutants, which means no one will miss them if we say... enslave them th-", he's cut off by one of his lieutenants.

"Sorry Devin but we need to get on with this before we miss our window again. Vanessa, Roach, you'll both be heading out with several other squads on a slave gathering mission. Another team will head in to grab the food so don't worry about any supplies you find. This mission is of the utmost importance, as these slaves will allow most of our current slaves to become one of us.", The lieutenant explains still shushing Devin. "I expect you two to be leaving in a few moments, so please get some food and report down to the docks ASAP."

And with that the 'leaders' continue with their conversation of how they'll be training the new 'recruits' if the mission is a success.

The Slaves Line

The line slowly moves forward. It appears you still have another ten minutes or so until you get past the entrance.

Up above in the scaffolding/stairs you can hear some kind of commotion breaking out!

"I SAID GET OVER THERE BY THE WALL! *radio crackling* Yeah, we have some jackass over- no he's not a slave- JUST SEND SOME GODDAMN BACK UP!"

"You don't seem to understand do you. This place will fall! Now let me speak to your leader immediately!"
 
The Justifier saw the commotion above. A few other people around saw it too, and Justifier was curious as to what was going on. Someone who wasn't a slave seemed to be causing trouble. Justifiers rationalization programs started to run, and he determined that it could be someone on the outside trying to break in, or maybe one of the raiders was defective? The latter was unlikely, but possible.

Non-chalantly, The Justifier ran his scanners to try to pick up anything about the people above.
 
The Justifier

>You successfully scan both targets and reveal something you didn't expect.

It was strange, you looked at the Raider. Pulled up his profile, his guy, his suit, etc... But this other man. Something was 'off' he shimmered like his body changed with the blink of an eye. Between a average height Human Male, to something you can't even comprehend. You feel your scanners switch off, you feel strange!
 
The Justifier stood still and pulled up his hat. His scanners went off, but he felt like he got way more information than he intended. The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. The engineering in his head had a hard time classifying this knowledge and he could feel the unsettling in his head. The light on his head turned white as he looked up to the scaffolding. He stared intently as he stood in the middle of the crowd. People moved past him, pushing and shoving him out of the way. He didn't care, however. His eyes were transfixed on the... Different person. That guy wasn't normal.

The Justifier logged information on him.

> Strange Slaver

> Possible Morphing?

> Inhuman?

> I&:)@@8don;t62?kn&&o^%*w{}i2;#can&t,!/des672@cr^%>€ibe;it

The Justifier tried to log more info, but any attempt at making files seemed to corrupt them. He simply couldn't put it into digital code... He tried a few more times but was only able to him down as

> Strange Slaver
> Possible Morphing?
> Inhuman?

The fans in his head spun with vigor. He could feel his head heaaaaaaaa6676777777:!)$'nnnnmting up from thinking about it. In a panic, he q77888uickly got back into the groove of walking, and made his way far from the incident. Another feeling in his head. He couldn't describe this one. He'd never felt something like it before. It was 56/7%^<_****ERROR_>>^^^. That is what made him panic the most.
 
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"A vacation? I wanna come too!" Annie said with excitement. "Can we go Tia? Can we?" The child said hugging the woman around her waist, looking up pleadingly at her aunt's face.

"Well if we can get things arranged I think it could work out." Tia said with a slight nod before turning her attention towards Duncan with a slightly more serious expression compared to when she was talking to Annie, oblivious of his shy nature towards her. "I can meet you tonight. However in the meantime is there anything I can do to help out …what the hell?" Tia said cutting her sentence off midway as her gaze moved towards the commotion. After listening to the bits a pieces she could hear she gave a slight chuckle and looked at Duncan. "This place will fall he says? What kind of whacko did they find this time around?"

"What's going on?"

"I'm not sure. If you promise to be careful we can go find out." Tia said ready to head out but before doing so turned her attention towards the man beside her. "Care to come investigate with us? Maybe that old bucket of bolts will know what is going on with all the sensors and crap he has. What's his name again? With quite a few people here it's hard to keep tabs on who is who." Tia said motioning up ahead.
 
Virginia was perfectly happy thinking about her plan and perfecting it, when a commotion suddenly started to break out. Her gaze turned towards the strangers on the stairs, narrowing her eyes while trying to sharpen her sight.

"... What the fuckity fuck?" She finally whispered after a while of trying to handle the situation. Almost immediately, her legs started to work, pushing against the crowd and heading towards the commotion. Out of the corner of her eyes, Virginia noticed the Justifier doing the exact opposite, which made a few warning bells ring in her head. However, she didn't back out, though she was more careful. The last thing she wanted was the expression "the curiosity killed the cat" becoming true.
 
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[[Let us begin.]]

Everyone

You see the raider in a firing stance with his Ak-47 pointed at the man's head. The man that started the commotion was dressed in a very nice suit that has a strange shimmer inside the fabric, like distorted faces screaming within the cloth. The man then proceeds to grab the barrel of the man's gun.

>Like that the Ak-47 literally melts in the raider's hands, it spills from the raider's palms forming a steaming pile of liquid metal and wood on the floor.

"W-what...", the raider says staring at the man in utter fear. The raider begins to back up, he trips and falls flat on his back.

"Now. I. Will. Ask. Again. Take, me to your leader. I have urgent news for him.", The strange man speaks in monotone.

Everyone, including the slaves stands speechless. Slowly one of the raiders approach The Man gently tapping him on the shoulder, the raider asks The Man to follow him. They walk off together towards the Lobby building, slowly the line begins to move once more. With some staring at the steaming pile of AK on the ground.
 
"Sure, I will accompany you both. I'd be careful though." He said as he joined them and the other on-lookers in the crowd. He felt his stomach flip as he watched the robot leave quickly from the scene, it's lights flicking between red and green. Now Duncan wasn't a roboticist but generally when something is fleeing and its beeping, its probably confused about something. His suscipsions were confirmed just a few minutes later.

He saw the man melt a barrel of a rifle with his bare hands. His bare fucking hands. To him, this made no logical sense at all since that would exceed a staggering amount of heat and energy. Out of fear, he quickled stated, "That is amazing... and terrifying at the same time. We should back away... slowly."
 
Virginia stood speechless as the scene before her played out. No fucking way. If it weren't for the situation she was stuck in, she would be probably jumping in excitement, thinking about all the stuff a person could do with an ability like that, while still quivering in fear. When the strange man, and a raider, left the scene, her gaze roamed towards the gun on the ground, actually, the pile of metal and wood that once was an AK.

Damn.

The woman didn't notice the lines beginning to move again, nor did she notice that she probably looked really stupid right now. With wide emerald eyes that only had sight to the AK, or what the AK had become, a gaping mouth that more resembled a fish than anything else, and a motionless body that could be easily mistaken as a statue.

Holy fuck.

Virginia was shaken out of her thoughts when an asshole slave pushed her out of the way, apparently, she was slowing down the line. Right. Yeah, the line. Work. Yeah. After what seemed far too long, her legs finally started to work, her gaze leaving the pile of AK for the first time in minutes.

"Holy shit." Virginia still hadn't finished the list of cuss words in her mind.
 
The episode started to play out over head, and Justifier looked up to see t;(he m98an and one of the slavers... Fighting? Justifier snapped photos as they stepped closer to each other to save into his memory banks. As a robot cowboy, even he couldn't believe what he was seeing. 3T7!he m7an walked over to the slaver on the dangling scaffolding, and without care or worry, touched their gun, which then melted at the very touh as if t90@h@e m5))an was a thousand degrees.

Justifier continued in the line. A dribbling of metal slipped through the scaffolding and onto the ground. His processes could barely handle what was going on, and they spun like wind mills during a hurricane. The sound of wind enter and blowing out of his head was probably audible, and heat radiated from his head. Justifier didn't dare hold up the line, so he continued to walk satisfied with the many pppppppppppp$:?1(&!2),!/&ctues he got. He decided to review them to maybe clear his own AI sanity.

The Justifier flipped through the photos one by one like a slidehow. And oh lord, something was wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrong.

Each photo where t;62!@hhhhe ma8>*n stood, there was nothing but a black void in the shape of a human body. As it got c-*{!loser, it seemed to change and morph around it's black edges, until it looked like a black splotch on the background. And when ?]*it/?$ stuck it's 8/'{*ha-*+nd out, it seemed like two or three dark, winding hands followed it.

Then, The Justifier felt something snap in his brain, the photos he had taken were somehow %*cha$8an%^^*¥ging shhhjhhhhh*8888fting to something di78$&ferent. His memory bank <<<ERROR-8** couldn't han7dlr it....

The Justifier moved to the side of the moving line just before he shut down. The light on his head and on the center of his body dulled and died out.

> RUN BACK UP SYSTEM
> RUNNING
...
> UNEXPECTED ERROR
> ERROR DETECT*]!~+]'>>$3)/
> ATT-),&^^^EMPT REBOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
> MEMORY SAVED
> WISE SAYINGS SAVED
> COWBOY ACCENT SAVED
> J.E.D COMPLEX SAVED
> JOKES SAVED
> AIM ADJUSTER
> JUSTICE MATRIX
> PHOTOS ^{€a£]+¥\36!,about€**\\, 24/32
...
> REBOOTING
 
He lays there, the cold metal floor against his skin sending shivers up his spine. Muffled voices, their words indistinct, drift about the other side of the large window, shadowy figures also there, watching callously. Slowly, a heat suffuses his body, bringing about a throbbing headache. Soon all he feels is pain, his skin burning with agony as it splits open wetly and sloughs off, trailing blood and ichor in it's wake, revealing new alien-looking carapace beneath. He tries to scream, both from pain and terror, but finds his vocal chords unresponsive, managing only a feeble wail as he passes out from shock.

His eyes snap open, and he gasps, his heart racing.

"Ah, speak o' the devil."

The voice was rough, abrasive on his ears. Reminded him of his own. Calming his nerves with shuddering breaths, the mutant looks up at the source of the voice, eyes taking a moment to focus. It belonged to a bald middle-aged man with tanned skin and an intense stare, built like a lumberjack with a beard to match. He wore a suit of studded leather armor emblazoned with a roughly painted shoulder insignia that he didn't recognize, with a battle-worn AK-style rifle slung across his back. The raider was also dragging the mutant across the floor by his arms, which were bound by the wrists, with the help of one of his fellows, a weedy looking guy who appeared almost fearful and avoids the mutant's gaze. The mutant jerks back, trying to pull away, but the burly raider twists his wrists, with a grip like a vice.

"Don't try nothin'. You got no chance of gettin' away here."

The mutant stops, taking a moment to look around. He was in some kind of camp, and all around him were men and women, armed and armored to the teeth going about their business, many shooting glances in his direction, some curious, many spiteful. It was safe to assume that all those people were the raider's friends. What happened? He shakes his head, trying to organize his thoughts. Last he remembered, he was at the hospital trying to find more leads, which turned out to be a bust.

Then the raider patrol showed up. He wasn't expecting that. The intel he had been given on the region placed the raiders much further away from his scouting runs. Might've been out of date, but the one who told him probably didn't realize. Next thing he knows, he's here, sporting a headache and zipties on his wrists and ankles. He'd get gunned down in seconds if he tried to break for it now. Not to mention that his gear seems to be missing. At least he still has his clothes. The mutant stares back up at his escort.

"Thas right. Think yer sharp enough to see it's pointless to get away."

He growls, deep in his throat, then speaks, his voice harsh and vaguely threatening, though he didn't intend it to be. "Why not let me go? I don't want any trouble."

The raider's eyes widen for an instant, and he laughs.

"So, it talks! 'fraid I can't do that. Me boys ain't too happy 'bout the beatin' you gave 'em, and they'd gut ya if they had the chance. Only reason yer alive is 'cos I caught ya, and we need bodies to do stuff for us. Wouldn't look too good fer me if I jus' let ya go, would it?"

The mutant shrugs as best as he could. "What was I supposed to do? They threatened me."

The raider scoffs. "I hear ya. Them damned fools most of the time, and only reason why they ain't dead yet is 'cos I been put in charge of 'em."

He falls silent as they turn a corner. The mutant glances out the windows as he passes, seeing a huge crowd of people milling about in a large pit as rain fell through a large opening above in the ceiling. None of them appeared to be armed. Those must be the slaves.

"So, what were ya doin' out there? You from Mickey's?", the raider says.

The mutant tilts his head quizzically, wondering why this man was striking up a conversation with a prisoner. A mutant prisoner at that. Examples of such tolerance to his kind weren't common among humans. Maybe he was just interested in hearing new stories. "Never heard of it. I'm from out of town."

The raider looks surprised. "Outside a' New York? Not many willingly come here. Especially by their lonesome."

The mutant pauses, wondering if he should state the reason of his visit. There wasn't really any pressing reason not to, as few were interested in the bounty he was after since it wasn't food, weapons, or shelter, and having a friend of sorts among the 'ruling' class here would be useful.

"I'm...ah...looking for someone. He's saved my life. More than once."

"Maybe yeh'll find 'im 'round here? We might have picked 'im up."

The mutant doubted that, though he appreciated the sentiment.

"Ah, we're here. Jus' in time for yer first shift."

The raider pulls the mutant to his feet, allowing him to lean against a wall as the human dismisses his assistant with a wave of his hand, who runs off to perform other tasks. Opening a metal door, he pulls the mutant through to the top of some scaffolds overlooking the slave put, and cuts through his bonds with a knife. The mutant rubs at the points of contact, a slight tingling feeling running through his extremities. The raider points out the major areas of The Pit, and the entrances to the ammo press and salvage dock.

A crowd seemed to be gathering on the opposite end of the area, where some kind of commotion had sprung up. A group of raiders appear to be holding someone at gunpoint, but it looked like they were having some trouble. He couldn't imagine how.

"Agh, what now? You better git on down there 'fore you get shot. Gonna see what all the noise is 'bout."

The raider shoos him off before running across the scaffolding to see what was happening. Taking the raider's advice, the mutant descends swiftly.. Luckily, it seemed most were too distracted by the scene on the scaffold to notice his arrival just yet. Through the rain, he could make out another raider confronting an unusually dressed man with his rifle, though he was too far away to pick out what they were saying over the crowd. The man's suit looked too...clean-cut, and the fabric seemed to defy the laws of nature, like it was a portal to another world, showing a consistent immobile pattern of screaming faces no matter how he moved.

The mutant could feel his slit-pupil eyes ache, watching in disbelief as the strange man reached out and seized the raider's weapon by the muzzle, the gun melting away at his touch. The raider backed away, tripping and falling as his weapon flows out of his hands to the ground, where it lay in a sizzling deformed heap as an example of the man's power. Shortly after, another raider escorts the man inside, his movement and the reactions of the other guards as they passed making it obvious how shaken they were. He briefly wonders what a touch like that would do to a living being, and hoped to never find out personally.

What have I got myself into...?

He sighs, looking about as everyone lines up to return to the day's labor. People of all sorts were here; human, mechanical, and mutant. A real melting pot. First thing to do was to get a handle on the situation, and hope there wasn't anyone, raider or slave, looking for a shakedown. There were probably already some among the prisoners looking to escape. Just had to be patient, and see what other options he had. Anywhere was as good as anywhere else to start looking. Picking one of the lines at random, he waits, wary of danger.
 
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[[Alright finished reading. Now time for ZE' UPDATE!]]

Labor Day

You all snap out of your panic!

You see that the line has moved up quite a bit and most slaves are just bumping past you now, with most of them still keeping their eyes on the liquid pile of AK. Several raiders descend down to your level, shoving slaves out of the way and yelling at the line to start, "Hurrying up those goddamn stairs!"

Said Raiders approach the Raider, who's been reduced to a quivering, blubbering, mess of a man; they quickly scoop him up and bring him back up the stairs.

A few more moments pass, you can hear the slaves muttering amongst themselves.

"Who do you think he was? I think he's a god."

"I thought it was pretty funny seeing that raider be all like, "Awww Lawdy I'm gonna die!" "

"Maybe he is a god... or maybe he's a damned mutie."

"Yeah, but their boss hates muties."

"Whatever, if it means we get to be free. Fine. With. Me. But yeah, seeing that raider panic was fucking hilarious!"

You can see the 'checkpoint' where you head to one of the labor camps, there's two booths. One leads to the presses and the other leads to the boat, luckily you get to have a choice today.

The Raiders

You see your fear paralyzed comrade get drug off towards the medical tent. "Poor, poor bastard.", you think to yourself. You'd never wish for Dr. Heindlanicers 'therapy sessions' on anyone; that man had a way to get inside your mind, make you reveal your darkest secrets... that and he's pretty freaky looking with his unaligned, tobacco stained teeth, those gangly arms that seem to just hang limp at his sides; and those fucking eyes, you shudder at the thought of those freaky eyes.

You're snapped back into reality, feeling a light tap on your shoulder. Quickly you turn around and see Marty, the other non-dickish raider who happens to be your designated pilot/wheelman/driver/comicrelief. He's a pretty tall guy with a build similar to a boxer's; with a strong jawline and beefy lookin' face too boot. You saw him about a week ago, from what you remember he was going on a trip out west to meet with... strange... you can't quite recall who he was supposed to meet with.

"Hey guys, how ya'll doing?", He speaks in a thick southern accent, with his arms now hanging on both Vanessa's and Roach's shoulders.
 
Fucking assholes. Virginia thought as a third slave bumped into her, almost sending her face straight to the ground. Well, fine, she wouldn't help any of them when she escapes, whenever that might be. Her ears picked up a few slaves talking to each other, one of them mentioning something about a god. She snorted.

Out of the corner of her eye, Virginia noticed a slave unfamiliar to her. She turned her head to try and take a look at him, eventually turning her whole body seeing as how far behind he was. New guy? She asked herself, her eyebrow raising as she took a full glance of him. Actually, new mutant? Damn, look at -- Rudely, her thoughts were interrupted as a raider pushed her forward, while yelling something like "move your fucking lazy ass, slave! You have work to do!" As she had said. Rude.

"Damn, 'aight. I'm moving, I'm moving!" She raised her arms in a motion of relax, dude. I got it and moved. When she arrived at the 'checkpoint', the woman picked up the booth that leads to the presses, all while muttering obscenities under her breath. She should have punched that guy in the face, but then, Virginia likes living. Though dieing doesn't seem like a bad idea at the moment. Oh, the choices.
 
Justifier was in the middle of his reboot. People pushed him over, to the side. Being bounced around like a pinball in the arcade machine. Until eventually he fell over to the wall and slid down it like a rag doll. At least he was the sturdiest rag doll in New York. Voices rung in his ears, but it meant nothing to him. The anti-virus and other firewalls in his head made quick work of the disturbance, chasing it out of the system like loyal dogs and into a matrix far beyond. Though, there was something in there that couldn't quite be erased. A permanent smudge on one of his RAM slots that still fed his motherboard info. Then, Justifier started to wake out of hibernation.

White prickled his vision as the light on his head started to glow once more. Immediately he felt different. His waking up felt stranger than when he woke up an hour or so ago. A robot could a degree feel refreshed or renewed, almost like getting new oil into the system, which was what Justifier felt like. Something new was pumping through his cybernetic code. The Justifier rose back up into position. An action figure standing tall, proud, and ready. His robotic arms dusted off his cape and tipped off his hat. Then, he slid it back on.

"Huh, I reckon I need a bit more slumber or this water got me acting all funny." He said to himself. His memory dizzy and his processes still trying to get warned up from the cold

sleep he had. His memory just barely able to comprehend the last three minutes remembered something significant happened on the... Scaffolding. With a man and one of the slavers. Though that was all his artificial mind could remember at the moment. Justifier, having the memory of an Elephant, moved on back into the crowd without care or worry. The memory of the oblique pictures was lost to him. Except for one internal picture he took, that he knew not off. Along with that, he knew not of the ramifications that would come of the occurrence.

Justifier got back into the rhythm of marching, keeping pace with the pounding feet and the hymn of people talking, which he didn't concern himself with. The white light on his metallic face stared skyward to the bruised sky which ran across his vision like a scar. Ahead, he saw people dividing into two lines. Boats and presses. Memory started to kick back in. Duncan wanted something from Justifier. Something about Justifiers guns floated around in the memory of their conversation. Justifier trailed off from the thought of the conversation, and now he wondered what happened to his prized guns. The ammo belt felt dusty and unused without Prejudice, and his shoulders felt unburdened by Pride. He turned his head around, and decided to wait for Duncan. So he stared upstream of the current of people and tried to find him. Maybe Duncan could remind him.

"Pardon me, misses and sirs." He said as people bumped into him.
 
Brand-1 would stumble awake, his perherpials kicking online an his hydraulics ramp up as he starts looking around. His vents would kick out dust as he continues done the line, not noticing anything around himself. He was running through his internal cameras and verifying everything was in good condition. Delicate electronics didn't much care for being stuck in a loop of hot air, and the constant diving underwater hadn't been too good on corrosion. His efforts hadn't been in vain, for because of this he was probably one of the best computers around.

"I wonder what I'll be doing today. Probably doing the same thing as yesterday... And the day before that... And the day before that..."
 
Krando felt someone step on the tip of his tail, saying something like "Fucking move already!" Despite the fact that Krando, was in fact, already walking.

"Finally, choice of labor." Rhodri said to himself, his voice having a bit hiss to it.

Krando hurried into the ammo press. To him, it was a much better option than risking the coldness of the scuba diving.

"Maybe I could steal some of the ammo..." Rhodri thought to himself. It could be useful later.

Then he realizes something: The scuba BOAT. It could be used as an escape vehicle. But he knows that he must wait, until he is better prepared.
 
Prodigy awoke slowly to the sound of the morning bustle. He had fallen asleep at his workbench again after another late night. He stood up and stretched, working the tension out of his muscles. He looked at his current project: repairing a water filtration system for the raiders. He may not have had to do hard work like the other slaves, but he was still a slave. The workbench was scattered with other projects: a broken manhack, a half-finished Membrane Oxygenator CBM, a charred hunk that used to be some kind of energy weapon. Other things stood inside the small tent that was his workshop. The most notable were the lower half of a copbot and a half-built V6 engine. Prodigy exited the tent, waving to the guard at the door, who just scowled at him. He started walking toward the mess hall for some breakfast.
 
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