You can't really say you didn't see this coming entirely, The Combine may try hide beneath the guise of being some organization out to rebuild civilization, but at the core it's just another dictatorship in development. You've seen the hypocrisy first hand of how they deal with those like you when it suits their purpose, and then dispose of them, when it doesn't.

However, none of this really matters, the fact remains you can't stay here at least not in the way you'd want to anyway. You "resign" your position and return back to your second home outside Cinderville where you gather some supplies for your travels and get in your van (which has long been upgraded to function on a more reliable basis now) and decide to live life as a wandering bandit, but not without first sabotaging the biofuel refinery in Cinderville. A sabotage that results in the  refinery not only blowing up and killing folks, but also spraying shit all over most of the town.

"HA HA! HAVE A NICE LIFE SHITHEADS!" you're heard saying before driving off.

Months go by and you eventually become enemy number one by The Combine for your criminal activity of destroying caravans, murdering citizens, and creating mayhem whenever you can. Sometimes you work alone, sometimes you manage to form a gang for raids, but in all cases your goal is to cause as much misery as you're able. You're determined to prove that the concept of order is doomed to failure as it always has.

Eventually along with Combine soldiers, freelance bounty hunters are set upon you. You remain free however, always one step ahead…

One day driving along an old unused road, you see a strange man standing along side it. He doesn't look quite human, you've heard stories of mutants, (and certainly seen mutated animals) but you've also heard most of them stay in the City where they were created by the radioactivity there. Of course there's always a few that wander away. Looks like this one has, in fact he looks like he has with a purpose, he pulls a gun on you as your van barrels down the road, in his other hand is a piece of paper, probably a wanted poster of you. It looks like this mutie is being dramatic, but you don't know… there's something really creepy about him. He looks like death personified with the way he's just waiting for you.

You duck down and speed past him

You figure he's probably expecting that, so you speed up and duck your head down. You hear the sound of two of your tires blowing out, which is strange because you didn't hear any shots. You just barely avoid crashing into some nearby rocks; however you do flip your van on its side.

Cursing your situation, you quickly recover, grab what supplies you can and crawl out the side window. You briefly turn your head to see how far the mutant bounty hunter is, but he's completely disappeared. You have no idea where he's gone. Just then a different gunshot is heard and coming from another direction down the road.

"Hey get that bastard, we gotta collect that bounty!" an armored man says to another.

"What the fuck? Did they hire the whole state to bring me down?" you say to yourself hauling ass out of the area, with more bullets whizzing your way.

Eventually you manage to lose all of them. You find a nearby abandoned gas station to rest in and reflect on things. That was a very close call. Its obvious The Combine is REALLY out for your blood, they got bounty hunters scouring the wasteland for you, and you've noticed your encounters have only increased recently.

This is going to be your life now. You're going to be hunted until the day you die which will be soon, if you aren't careful. You can kill all the Combine troops, hunters and mercs you want, they'll still send people after you.

The only thing you can do is leave the area altogether or find some place to hide for awhile.

You hide

You have to lay low somewhere for a few months, maybe even a year! However, you doubt if going to a town is going to be suitable. Your reputation at this point is pretty infamous, not to mention The Combine has a nasty habit of incorporating towns into their organization, if they aren't affiliated already. Even an "Outlaw" town wouldn't be suitable, you'd just have to watch your back even more, and bounty hunters aren't adverse to entering those either.

You don't know where to go, so you just start walking, it's during this time when you find something that just might help you.

Its something you haven't though about in years…those old late night commercials you used to see before the bombs dropped. Ground Zero Survival. The corporation that was trying to sell their shelters to people. You remember when you were hiding in your basement after the attack, you thought about how much you should've bought a bomb shelter.

Indeed, you wonder what things would've been like if you had…

Well you've found one, sitting right here in the middle of nowhere. You go inside.

You enter the shelter entrance and see a single elevator door across from you and an ATM like machine nearby. Upon looking at the ATM machine thing, the display reads "ERROR".

You press a few buttons and hit the machine a couple times, just to see what happens, to your surprise the elevator door opens up.

"HELLO JOHNATHAN! YOUR IDENTIFICATION HAS BEEN CONFIRMED AND YOUR CARD HAS BEEN APPROVED! WE AT GZS HOPE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY HAVE A PLESANT STAY DURING THE APOCALYPSE!"

Huh, that's weird. You shrug your shoulders and guess the computer thinks you're someone else. You briefly wonder what happened to the family that was supposed to use this shelter though.

You enter the elevator which goes down. You can't help but notice there aren't any call buttons on the thing, when you exit you also notice there aren't any call buttons on the outside either.

When it closes behind, you suddenly get the sinking feeling you're trapped down here and you're pretty much right.

"What the hell kind of idiotic design is this shit? GZS must've been run by a bunch of fucktards!"

Before you worry about it, you explore the Shelter a bit more and this really isn't so bad. You're really well stocked here. Food, water, entertainment, comfortable living conditions. Actually it's like a much bigger and better version of your old home outside of Cinderville.

You decide if you have to be a prisoner here, this isn't really a bad way to spend it. You settle in and make yourself comfortable.

Ten years pass…

Twenty years have passed and even you're amazed you survived this long given all the things you did. Of course hiding down here probably helped.

In fact you've been reflecting on your past life lately. Or more accurately re-examining it. It's weird since it was isolation that sort of set you on the dark path you chose, yet now, your isolation is creating a sense of regret and sorrow in you.

And its not the isolation itself, it's just the fact you've had more time to think about all the terrible things you've done in the past and much of it is extremely appalling. Unforgivable really.

You've lied.
You've stole.
You've tortured.
You've betrayed.
You've used people as slave labor.
You've murdered countless people.
You've killed children.
You've raped women.
You've orchestrated chaos.
You've committed numerous atrocities and you did it mostly all for your own pleasure.

And oddly you've gotten away with all of it for the most part.

Why did you do any of it? You don't even know why anymore, you're just sorry that you did. You've begun to have nightmares about some of the things you've done. All the faces of your victims.

It's like it's all starting to finally catch up with you…in more ways than one.

You wake up in a cold sweat from one of your nightmares one day, except this time you see something at the foot of your bed. Something familiar, but strangely appropriate.


"Y'know, everyone else stopped looking for you after you disappeared, but I knew if I continued my search, I'd find you eventually."

It's that mutant bounty hunter you saw ten years ago. At this range he really does look like death personified. In fact, you don't think he's a mutant at all. For the first time in your life, you feel fear, but there's something very surreal about all of this.

"You can't be here! The elevator doesn't work! I would've heard you coming down!" you say in disbelief.
"Well you were asleep, but it's amazing what you can block out of your mind, I think you know all about that don't you?"
"…how did you find me?"
"You can't hide from the past. Of course I think you know all about that too, right?"
"I'm hallucinating! I'm seeing things that aren't there. I'm sick!"
"That's probably the understatement of the decade. But you haven't been well in twenty years and that's why I'm here now. I can make it all go away. Tried to do it ten years ago, but you weren't ready yet I guess."

It suddenly occurs to you. This…being isn't here to punish you at all; he's here to release you. And it's finally welcome.

"Will you really make it all go away?" you ask with a quiver in your voice.
"Of course, like I said that's why I'm here."
"Oh good, thank you!" you begin to sob.

The pale being readies his weapon, but before he releases you, you still have some questions.

"Wait, before you do it. Do you know why I did it?"
"Because you could."
"That's it?"
"That's it. All those other reasons you might've toyed with in the past were merely philosophical smoke screens to mask the truth from your mind. You did what you did, because you could. There is no deeper reason. The people who started World War three did it, because they could. None of it makes any sense, and any attempt to make sense of it, is meaningless. Your time here was meaningless. Whether you killed a bunch of people or you had saved a bunch of people, it wouldn't have mattered. Life and world would've gone on regardless. You weren't special, you never were. And you know it, deep down inside you know it."

For the first time you finally see everything so clearly.

"Yes…you're right. I see that now."
"Of course I'm right…so now are you ready?"
"Yes."

You sit up in your bed and close your eyes. You hear the sound of a pistol being cocked and feel a steel barrel against your temple.

You breathe hard in anticipation.

Then you hear a shot.