You don't really have anything better to do, and you are sort of interested in learning more about your surroundings. You are living here now after all.

"Uh sure I'll go with you. What do I do exactly?"
"You'll go? Great! You don't really have to do too much really, I just need someone to help with the whole protection thing while I search, since Ted here is being a jackass and not giving me any bullets!"
"Hey those are in damn scarce supply in the first place! In fact, you better start finding them on your own soon, because I don't have too many to spare anymore anyway. I need something to defend my shop with. Here!" Ted pulls out three bullets from his ragged pockets and gives them to Carl. "That's coming out anything you bring back too, and if you guys are going downtown, you better do it now, before nightfall. See you later."

You and Carl set off, while you're walking you notice other mutants wandering in the neighborhood, but they don't attack, in fact many of them are just watching the both of you or going about their business. (Like catching a rat to eat)

"So is this area safe or something? Nobody's attacking us." You ask.
"Of course it's safe, well safe as anything can be in this place. I mean there's still always the Ferals that roam around, but not so much around here anymore. The people around here in the Dust District don't even try to eat one another. Probably due to the fact that a lot of people used to live here and work together in the factory and warehouses nearby, so I guess there's that sense of unity as it were. Though I'm sure most of them did attack each other at one time. Still, this is a severely new situation, you can't blame TOO much on what happened during people's madness. Weird what happened though, I mean do you think the enemy dropped some sort of nuclear nerve agent combo on this place? Or did we all just go temporarily insane in the face of the shear devastation?"
"I really couldn't tell you, Carl. Maybe the second one I guess." You say keeping your secret information on the reasons to yourself.
"Yeah, doesn't take much for us to fall apart I suppose. The Zeropolis Guard have also claimed they're going to make this place even safer when they set up a new base here, though I sort of wish they'd just leave us alone. I get the impression they'll be trying to tell us all what to do and conscripting us to fight the Shadow Horde."
"What is the Shadow Horde anyway?"
"Man, you don't know who THEY are? Then again you didn't know the city name either! Anyway The Shadow Horde is a group of mutants who primarily live in the sewers, though they do come out at night and attack anyone who isn't part their group. They're sort of like the Ferals, except they are a lot more organized and even more vicious. I've heard they have a leader of some sort; I've only heard rumors though; ranging from a giant abomination, to a beautiful priestess of some sort. Have a hard time believing a lot of them, the only thing I do know is you don't want to get outside at night, let alone even enter the sewers!"

Carl continues to about various things of Zeropolis on your way Downtown. As fucked up as things are, you can't help but be fascinated by it all. You feel like you're actually living in some sort of 80s low budget post apocalyptic movie. You ask him if anyone actually leaves Zeropolis, but he says it's rare. The Ferals and other more territorial mutants seem content on staying in the City, and as for the other "normal" ones, it's happened, but it seems mutation isn't a common theme outside Zeropolis. Most mutants are shot on sight or at least chased off. At least those are the stories he's heard from a couple of people he knows that have left only to come back.

The closer you get to Downtown the more Carl stops talking only telling you to keep a look out and to be quiet. Lots of Ferals fight each other in the Downtown area and will obviously attack anyone else. Plus there are other scavengers here that will try to bushwhack each other as well. Carl pulls out a large bag and you and he start going into various devastated buildings where he grabs things of varying interest.

A few instance you see large groups of Ferals in the street, but Carl tells you not to fire, since they're all fighting each other at the time. Another instance when you're on the second floor of an apartment store, another mutant clobbers Carl with a lead pipe and tries to make off with the bag of goodies, but a couple of shots put the thief down.

"Thanks. Oh fuck, I think the shots caught the attention of the Ferals outside, we better get out of here!"

You and Carl rush out the building and after you fire a few more shots at the Ferals you both make a beeline back the Dust District, unfortunately you and Carl have to retreat and backtrack several times to avoid large groups of Ferals, until finally when you get out of the area, its twilight and you still haven't gotten back to the Dust District yet.

You and Carl hear a nearby sewer manhole opening up…


"Oh shit we're gonna die!" Carl yells and starts running. He's in such a hurry to getaway he trips and dumps his bag with all the contents inside! He frantically starts putting everything back in, but already you can see the Shadow Horde starting to come out, and yeah they do look a hell of a lot meaner than the typical Ferals, which is pretty hard to do. The fact that they start shouting

"CARL GET YOUR ASS UP, WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!" you yell and start blasting Horde members with your assault rifle, picking your shots, but when they fire back, you can't stand your ground for long and run leaving Carl behind.

You hear Carl trying to catch up with you, but you soon hear more shots, yell of pain followed by the collapsing of a body. You turn around to see one of the Horde trying to finish Carl off with a spiked bat, but he blasts the mutant in the head with his pistol twice killing it. He's wounded and even if you went back to get him, the rest of the Horde is closing in and you'd never outrun them if you carried Carl on your back.

Sensing the end is near; Carl uses his last bullet to save himself a torturous death by the hands of the Horde. Of course now you have worry about yourself.

You try to lose the Horde

You begin taking side streets and back alleys in a vain attempt to lose your pursuers, the only problem with this is tactic is, it isn't like there's only one sewer grating. They're all over Zeropolis meaning the Shadow Horde can pop up out of anywhere so "losing" them isn't really possible.

You're running down an alley when all of a sudden a very LARGE being comes leaping out of nowhere in front of you. Its ugly, its muscles are unnaturally large and it's fully intent on killing you.

You let fly your remaining rounds from your assault rifle, but it doesn't even stop the big mutant. You attempt to pull your pistol, but with one shot from its own, it blows a big hole in your body, and then it finishes you off by stabbing you repeatedly in the head with its knife.