Something you wouldn't ever consider eating before suddenly makes a lot of sense to you. You start off by grabbing the nearest crawling roaches you see and start popping them in your mouth and chew.

They taste terrible, somehow though you don't suffer a gag reflex though. You just find them unpleasant, like eating something bitter rather than disgusting. After having had enough of eating bugs you try to catch a rat. It takes awhile, but eventually you stomp on one severely crippling it and then stomp once more to kill it.

Eating a raw rat doesn't particularly taste any better, but again you don't suffer any sort of natural revulsion during this act. It would seem you've gone through a change of some sort, one that has put you in a better frame of mind for survival. One that has also put your body in better condition for survival as well since you suffer no ill effects from eating such unclean creatures under equally unclean conditions. You temporarily have some problems with lice and fleas you catch from the rats, but even that doesn't really become a problem considering the rest hair has fallen out now. (Well you have a few wisps left)  You skin also begins to harden in time, making fleas no longer a problem. Whatever internal parasites any of these might've carried also have no effect as it seems your resistance and immunity system has increased quite a bit.

You look in the bathroom mirror one day and see that you've changed alright. Changed into something better. You aren't going to win any beauty contests, but you're going to live…

A year passes…

You've been living a relatively simple life of eating and sleeping and it's basically been enough. For the past year your mind hasn't really been the most stable, so you haven't really thought about anything other than your immediate survival, and given you have a water supply and the rats and roaches for food, you haven't ventured outside of the GZS warehouse since you entered.

That's starting to change.

Lately your mind seems to have a little more clarity. Indeed you're starting to feel like "yourself" before the change. Not entirely like yourself, but you don't go shithouse rat crazy screaming at the walls like you used to.

You've been getting a little curious about the rest of the City. If you're mostly sane now, maybe other survivors are as well. Maybe even some things have been fixed; it would be nice if they were, as its getting boring where you're currently staying. Taking your weapons with you, you leave your new home to explore. (Making sure to hide the trapdoor before leaving of course)

The City streets are still as desolate as you remember them, and mostly empty as well. You expect to run into gangs of mutants though. You suddenly stop and think about that for a moment and realize that YOU are also a mutant now!

Still, that doesn't necessarily mean mutantism is a club. You're sure there's a lot of fighting for resources. In fact you come across some fighting, though in a different way than you'd imagine. While you're walking through a neighborhood by a corner store that has all its windows boarded up, you hear voices inside. You step through the open doorway to investigate. It's dark inside, but some candles light up the place.

"Ted, what do you mean you won't gimme anything for this? This is a solid gold watch man!" a skinny mutant asks an exceptionally ugly one eyed mutant he has pistol strapped to his side.
"Goddamn it Carl, would you fuckin' think? What the hell am I gonna do with a gold piece of shit that doesn't even work anymore in the first place?"
"Well can't you trade it for something? I mean gold's gotta be worth something to someone! It's not like I gave you a sack of dollar bills!"
"Didn't stop you from trying though did it? Look Carl, unless it's something useful you know damn well I ain't taking it. Bring back some batteries, a first aid kit, hell some canned corn would be a welcome change of pace than watery roach soup! Just stop bringing me shit I have no use for!"
"But Carl! I need some bullets! You can't expect me to do any scavenging downtown without bullets for my pistol! How will I defend myself against the Ferals or how about at night when the Shadow Horde comes out?"
"Cry me a river Carl, you're a fast guy I'm sure you can outrun the roving gangs of Ferals, ain't that hard. And second of all you shouldn't even BE out at night! If you get caught out at night I got no sympathy for what happens to you! Now…" suddenly Ted's one good eye catches sight of you.


"Who the fuck are you pretty boy?" Ted asks, Carl just backs off when he sees the assault rifle strapped to your back.

"Pretty boy? Have you seen my face?" you retort.
"Yeah, I see your fucking face an' you're a fuckin' pretty boy as far as I'm concerned. Shit you ain't even got any scars. So what the hell do you want, I ain't seen you before. Ain't seen too many here with an assault rifle either. You part of the Zeropolis Guard? Then again you don't wear the uniform…maybe you just killed one of them then? Heh heh."
"Who are the Zeropolis Guard?"
"You ain't heard of them? Huh, well they've only just been making scouting missions in this area. Basically a collection of ex-National Guardsmen that insisted on staying here to the very end. They got the best hardware as far as I know, but the delusional fuckers think it's STILL their job to keep peace in the damn City. Ain't no peace in Zeropolis!"
"What's Zeropolis exactly?" you ask feeling completely out of the loop, which only gets you some mighty strange stares by Carl and Ted.

"Uh, Zeropolis, y'know…The City? That's what this place is called now." Carl says.
"Holy shit pretty boy, you been livin' under a damn rock or something?"
"Well, uh sort of…"
"I guess so! Where the hell ARE you from?
"Er…I never actually lived in the City...I guess you can kind of say I got trapped here and then shortly after went mad for a little while and I'm only just now starting to feel like myself." You explain without giving too much information out.
"Hmm, well that might explain some things. I think we all know about that madness you're speaking of. Think it happened to everyone after this place got nuked, still going on for most people. You get that hunger craving and violent thoughts pervade your mind…though the first one I killed and ate was my wife so it wasn't ALL bad har har har!" Ted laughs. "Hey how many people did you eat during that time?"
"Uh, none actually."
"None? Ah, you must be like Carl here. He just ate roaches and rats because even when the madness hit him he still was a big pussy!"
"Fuck you Ted! I'M the one going out risking my ass scavenging, not YOU! I…just didn't want to eat anybody…I guess I just never suffered the madness as much as the rest."
"Yeah, well anyway what do you guys actually sell here?" you ask.
"Well Carl doesn't sell shit, because he doesn't own this place, I do. And as you can probably tell we run on the barter system here that being the only real way to do business anymore. However I have a wide variety of items, but not obviously not right here, since this part of the store ain't the most secure as you can see, but bring me something I might find useful and maybe we can do business; just don't bring fuckin' broken gold watches!" Ted exclaims looking back at Carl.

"There's a lot of stuff downtown to scavenge, hey…maybe you could come with me?" Carl suddenly asks hopefully.

You go back home

"Nah, that's alright. I guess I'll be heading out." You reply and leave the shop with the full intent on going home.

On your way back home you unfortunately run into a couple of the Zeropolis Guardsmen who seem intent on giving you a hard time.

"Whoa there, who the fuck are you, and where do you think you're going with that rifle on your back?" one asks.
"What the hell difference does it make to you?"
"It makes a difference because we patrol this area all the damn time and we've never seen you before. Not to mention you look fucking suspicious with an assault rifle on your person!"
"…What the fuck? What about you guys?! You got damn machine guns and grenades!"
"Yeah, well WE'RE members of The Zeropolis Guard! We need this shit in our war with the Shadow Horde, while you're just a lowly civvy! We're going to be occupying this area soon and you won't need something like that as protection anymore. In fact a fine weapon like that would be better put to use by The Zeropolis Guard, so you probably should hand it over right now."
"Ha ha, you're a funny guy. I don't think so." You say.
"That wasn't a request, that was a goddamn order!"
"Sorry, but as you just pointed out I'm just a lowly civvy, so I'm not inclined to follow your stupid ass orders."

This last remark does it. The two soldiers now have their excuse, they raise their weapons and you do like wise. A small shoot out occurs in which you end up killing one of them and wounding the other, however they manage to wound you severely as well. As you attempt to take cover behind a wrecked car, the surviving Guardsmen throws a grenade in your direction which you are unable to react to in time before it blows you up.