You aren't going to march into enemy territory undefended so you quickly grab control of any infected you sense until it finally turns to lunchtime and you have over a hundred infected following around you. "Old man was right; I already have a horde this big after only a few hours, this really is the jackpot for forming an army." You keep going but stop building your horde at around 150, You could control more but you realize that it is somewhat pointless as there are simply so many around you. Shamblers in every building practically, and since every building around is a huge multistory, that makes for a lot of infected.


You carry on forward, only stopping briefly to eat the rest of the flesh you had brought with you and by dinner time you are keeping yourself occupied by swapping out horde menders, dropping the shamblers and taking more mutants. A couple feel slightly different when you force your control over them but they act exactly the same once you take their minds so you keep them too.


Finally as night approaches you sense a very large number of infected ahead who aren't moving and when you reach out you immediately realize that they are under someone else's control. You are still deciding how to proceed against what must be over 1000 mutants when you feel the pressure hit your mind. You force up your defense against the attack like you had practiced with the old man, envisioning slabs of steel slammed up against the pressure of the assault but most of what he showed was how to attack so you know you won't hold out long.


You do know how to talk though, it took several days to learn but the Old Man had taught you a very useful trick and you send out a small thread of thought through your defenses and you feel the attack lessen very slightly and a voice finally enters you mind through it.


"This is unexpected, you wish to talk this time? Last time you attacked us you seemed more like the rage driven egotist than the chatty type." The voice says.


You quickly respond, having already thought through several possible conversations. "I don't know what you mean by 'this time' but I have never met you before, never mind attacked you." You immediately feel surprise coming from the other mind. "You are actually telling the truth, you aren't the one who attacked us before, you shared his colouring and came from the west so we had assumed it was him coming again. But in that case why are you entering our domain with an army?"


You respond carefully "I had heard there were others like me here, I didn't intend to attack you with my horde, and I just never like to travel alone for safety reasons."


There is silence for a time before an answer comes. "You may pass but your horde cannot, you must release them then pass through alone or there will be no entry."


You think about this for a moment

You let them all go and head in alone, no point making them mad now, you're playing the long game

You head further into the city centre alone and the hordes part for you, you can feel them dispersing to either side around you. "The Old Man said they keep them evenly spaced out in a ring, does this mean they knew I was coming?" You think as you walk.


Finally you see the two minds of the harbingers ahead of you without having to stretch your senses out, and you also see the minds of what seems like over 300 humans with them, the very thought makes you hungry.


As you get closer you see another link reaching out for you and as before you join in to let them converse with you. "You are only about an hour's gentle walk away but you will need to circle a little to your left, that's North, to get inside, only one entrance you see and everything is guarded to prevent any problems in our little haven."


You carefully force your hunger and feelings down, if you've been getting snippits of theirs then they might get some of yours and that might not be good. "Of course, it's getting dark but that isn't really an issue for our kind, I'll walk faster though so I don't make you wait."


There is a pause and you are about to drop the link when you hear one more question "You came from the West where our enemy lurked, Have you have any interaction with him, he has the feel of an old man, a very angry one at that."


You pause for a moment; you didn't expect this question so bluntly so you have to choose your words carefully.

You tell some of the truth, that you encountered someone that might match that description but no details, if they push cover up the involvement.

The best tactic is a small truth to back up the lie right? Well, obviously it would be to slaughter then and feast on their flesh but for now you have to play nice.


"I did encounter someone like that, they indeed seemed very angry. Coming here and meeting you seemed like the better option when compared to staying there with a clearly hostile harbinger."


There is a slight pause before the next question "And he didn't attack you, no offence but I don't see you being alive if he did."


You tut to yourself, got to cover a little more "Well I think he was trying to recruit me, I think he would have attacked once he realized I wasn't taking him up on the offer but I was too far away already."


This time the reply comes right away "Oh how interesting, I presume he wanted your help in attacking us, he seems like the angry vengeful type and we did send him away in disgrace barely holding onto his life afterall. So you weren't tempted to join him?"

You enough is enough. They aren't buying the half-truths as the whole story so Lie outright about it

"Not at all, I got away as fast as I could to come here!' You emphasize, you can't let them know the truth


There is a longer pause than before and you get a little nervous when you hear the voice again. "Ok just up ahead you'll see the underground entrance on your right? Good, that's the entrance you'll need to take, we are quite nicely set up in an old arena here, if was half underground before so makes it very defensible as you can imagine!" The tone seems jovial and the tunnel leads towards the minds you sense so you head inside.


As you walk through the tunnel which has obviously had some work done to it with reinforcements and walls removed or built you sense the humans all gathering up ahead. "Is something going on up there?" You ask down the link and immediately get the response "Of course! It's not every day they get to see a new harbinger so this is somewhat of an event! Everyone has gathers for it. Some of the minds to the East don't agree with our stance on the matter which is why we separated but we see that we are superior to humans and should be treated as such so we rule here like Gods in a way, when we say there is an event, EVERYONE attends, not that they'd want to miss this anyway."


You heartily agree with the statement. You ARE better than humans, they are your prey after all, you can see their position though. Keeping them like pets to obey and serve you before eating them wouldn't be so bad either.


You see some light up ahead and walk out into what looks like the centre of an arena with 10 foot walls of concrete topped with another 10 feet of metal and reinforced glass. The humans are all on the other side of the glass cheering down at you like fans watching a concert. Something clearly isn't right though.


You sense the minds above you and looking up you see two cloaked figures sitting on a platform that extended out from the wall over the tiered row s of seats giving them the best view both around the room and down into the pit.


"Welcome to the City Arena! Rules by the Lords of the New City, this is the place where your post-apocalyptic fantasies can become a reality, for the right price!"


You now know that something is definitely wrong as a massive battered steel sheet slams down behind you, trapping you in the arena. Even with your enhanced strength you aren't sure you could budge it without a lot of time and something to level with.


The announcement continues though, the speakers voice amplified through a speaker system hanging high above of the roof. "Today we have a very rare treat for you, in the ring is a harbinger folks! That's right, like our very own Lords of the city he has superhuman abilities and can control infected, however this one tried to lie to the Lords and we know how they take that don't we!" The crowd responds with even more cheers.

You what you get for lying

You aren't going to stand for this, being put on display like some animal while the humans throw money around and a large board has odds displayed! Odds displayed.. You look around as see another large metal sheet across the way beginning to rise. "That's right folks, he might be a lot weaker than our lords but he is still a big challenge so we are sending in a big challenger! It's Nate the Sentinel!"


You lash out at the Lords above you but their defenses are solidly in place, you try the human minds, you are certain you can affect them but it seems that the two harbingers are protecting them too. The door does not wait for your tests though and before you have time to try the walls you see a huge beast lumber through. Like a man but grotesquely mutated into something that looked more like an ogre from the old myths than a human anymore.


You can easily beat any mutant you have come across barehanded, even the large dog types but as you size this thing you realize that it must be 12 feet tall and covered in muscles, this won't be an easy fight. The beast comes charging at you and you barely dodge in time as it moves faster than anything that size should be able to move.


You don't have many options left

You concentrate on its mind, if you get control of that then you can use it to let you escape.

You lash out at Nate's mind but find it protected, you push with everything you can to force your way in and register that its stopped moving at least while your try. The defense is slippery though, every time you think you have forced a way in, you find it there again. You finally think you have it when you feel a sudden spike against your own mind. Your defenses hold but you are stunned for a second.


Your senses return just in time to register that your right arm and ribcage is crushed and you are flying at a tremendous speed directly at the wall.


You impact with a sickeningly hard crunch and feel more ribs breaking. "Oh dear me folks, the Lords just indicated to me that instead of fighting Nate, the idiot tried to attack his mind and steal him from them! That left him wide open for Nate's punch! Give the man a hand though, I never seem anything that didn't turn into jelly at one of those hits never mind still be moving!"


You cough up blood and stagger to your feet. Just in time for Nate to reach you again. You even see the punch coming but can't get out of the way in time and take it full to the chest. You get slammed back into the wall and know your done for, your organs are jelly and your blood is pooling at your feet.


"And it's over folks, even if he is still breathing, he isn't moving! That's a win in two punches for Nate the sentinel, always a crowd favorite even if his opponent was weak.


You want to protest and tell them you weren't weak when just register being lifted in the air. "Oh and Nate is hungry folks!" you hear right before the crunch.