Truth be told Aaron thought their cautious approach was unnecessary, while monsters could pose a danger to them it was very unlikely any weapon found by civilians could pierce through their armor, coming closer to the barricade Beta 2 let the man lead along it looking for an opening, soon Aaron’s helmet detected movement hidden among the thorn covered cars highlighting a human silhouette in the green color of a neutral target. The old man leading them said “we are here”

Taking a few steps ahead of the group he shouted “Hey Jonny we’re back!” a voice came from the hidden man “What’s the password?” “Screw you. you stupid shit open up!” “What are those things with you old bastard?” “Humans Jonny that’s all that matters” the voice was quiet for a second before saying uncertainly” “They don’t look human to me old man, they look more like aliens” “What the fuck Jonny. There is no such thing as aliens you idiot” “Who knows, with the way things are I wouldn’t be surprised”

Sounds of scrapping metal and things moving came from over the barricade and a small opening appeared head of them it was only big enough for a single person to pass while crouched, Aaron would prefer to just climb over the 3 meters tall makeshift wall but he supposed it wouldn’t hurt to obey their hosts for the moment, Beta 3 and Beta 4 had stayed behind with long range snippers to cover them in case anything went wrong.

Eric went first as the most resistant, his wide frame barely fitting in the small tunnel as he nearly had to crawled through after which he called over the con “It’s clear you guys can cross” the rest of them crawled through Aaron going last to cover their back, on the other side the grass had not grown so tall and the place still looked like that of a normal city making a huge contrast to the forest like environment outside, the man who welcomed them was little more than a boy probably around sixteen or seventeen years old he shook the hands of the sic civilians then nodded their way “You can take of those strange helmets now this place is safe” “We would prefer not to thank you.”

Soon a group of 5 armed men came running their way. Their leader considered raising his gun and pointing at them but, upon looking at their military gear, thought better of it “Jonny what’s going on?” “I don’t really know boss, old José brought those guys over ask him” “They said they’re military boss, apparently someone called them about our owlbear problem” turning towards Eric the leader asked “Really?” putting a hand on Eric’s shoulders Beta 2 answered “Yes, an FBI agent in your camp managed to get in contact with the government, unfortunately we had a little accident along the way but we can still take care of them without any problems”

“Well if that’s the case them… welcome I guess” as Beta 2 started discussing with the men they let José and his group walk away and slowly made their way towards the center of the camp, Aaron quickly lost interest in their discussion and started looking around, rows of tents were laid on the open grounds between the buildings and many humans were walking around, most walked with fast steps clearly having a purpose while others laid about in a daze, the distinction between useful workers and useless leaches clear to see, dogs and cats were everywhere interacting with the men or eating from piles of trash found at the edges of the tents, quite some distance away from the living quarters there were small, one man tents in long rows extending for hundreds of meters, probably the bathrooms.

At least Aaron couldn’t see any signs of the corruption that had settled in the first city he visited, no outright rape on the open or murder, at the back of the camp his visor caught sight of a what could only be graves, a whole lot of graves, undoubtedly there were some cases of rape and theft in such big group of survivors but they were not done out in the open and probably still considered wrong.

A very old priest stood at the side of a younger athletic woman in a police uniform, the priest was the first one to move, with a wide smile that accentuated all his wrinkles he extended his hand towards Beta 2 “Welcome, I am father Willian I am in charge of the camp while Reynolds is out on the field” “Greetings father, my name is Roger Sanders the government heard you have a problem with Owlbears so they sent me and my team to take care of it” “The government? It’s good to hear there is still civilization out there come, come inside so we can talk in a more comfortable place” moving his arm in an arc the old man indicated towards his small church, it was a beautiful building with an old architecture.

For the first time Aaron focused on the old man, he was small and had a very round face, his hair was completely white and he had many wrinkles in his face, his eyes were brown and radiated a kind light reminding Aaron of his own doctor, the man who had helped him get his powers under control, he was surprised that he actually liked the guy on their first encounter.

They entered the empty church by the front door, seeing the place without benches and with barely any ornament Aaron said “Not a lot of people wanting to talk to God after this catastrophe is there?” “You would be surprised young man, people just don’t have the time to pray during the day but at night we are so filled that I had to take out the benches to get more space” “Is that so?” the old man laughed kindly “God’s role has always been to comfort his children in times of need my friend, a lot of people that did not believe before have now found their faith.”

The priest opened a door leading to a meeting rooms in the church and froze, right there out in the open was a 30 something brown haired man with a beard having sex with a young blond on top of a table, the man continued thrusting in and out of the barely legal teen for a second, their grunting masking the sound of the door opening so lost in pleasure they both were, father Willian cleaned his throat to call their attention.

Jumping apart immediately the men covered his dick with his hands while the girl tried to hide behind the table in shame “I am sorry father” putting a hand over his eyes the priest just sighed and shook his head “Just get dressed Sindy, as for you Jonas, we will talk latter” The two of them dressed in a hurry, the man going deeper into the building, his head lowered in shame while the young girl put on her blouse and skirt then ran out the door with her shoes in hand “Sindy” Called the father before she left “I understand why you’re doing this child but it is not the way, you know I am always here to talk if you want” She didn’t respond, too ashamed to say anything.

“Well a lot have indeed found their faith but, unfortunately, some have also lost it, as you will see if you stay for a while father Jonas is a good man but he is facing somewhat of a crisis of faith right now you will have to forgive him” Looking around the room the father said uncertainly “I guess we will have to use the other meeting room now, Lisa please remember to ask someone to clean that table later”

When they were all seated in the second room Aaron couldn’t help but whisper at Eric’s private con “Haha that was certainly new, I had never cockbloked a priest before” “Shut up man that’s not funny” he really thought it was but chose not to discuss it further while Beta 2 interrogated the priest “I was told a man named Reynolds was leading this camp?” “Yes, Reynolds was the one who first stablished the camp and lead it until it got to this size but he is currently out on the field, one of our patrols saw a group of goblins too close to the perimeter and he is the strongest man we have to take care of it, meanwhile he left me in charge of anything important, truth be told the camp basically runs itself now, Reynolds has managed to find some competent people to do the work all he needs to take care of now are the important decisions”

Interesting, this Reynolds may be more capable than Aaron initially thought if he knew how to delegate so well, he had initially thought the men was just the typical survival local lord, an ordinary guy who got lucky and learned some useful skill then decided that, now that the world had gone to hell and he had power, he could be the boss and do whatever he wanted, the amount of military reports Aaron read with some variation of them was staggering, from brutal leader of a small group to crazy cult leader for hundreds of survivors and even pseudo warlords appearing left and right, it seemed that every lucky bastard out there thought that the government was done for and decided to dictate their own rules.

As a matter of fact most of those were either already criminals and survived because of their illegal guns and brutality, anti-government gun nuts or crazy survivalists so it was not a big surprise when their groups were a little twisted.

“From what I could see you guys are pretty well organized here, how did you manage that?” asked Beta 2 to the old priest “Well Reynolds started it all but it the community was only created by all of our efforts, the church helps keep our people united, even those who are not Christians like to use the church when praying, then we have nearly a hundred policemen protecting the camp and one man knew where several truckloads of grain could be found so we got everything we need right here, until yesterday that is” The old man said the last part with such sad bitter face that even Aaron felt sorry for him Lisa, the policewoman at his side, also made an angry face “what happened?” asked Eric “our safety perimeter used to be about twice what it is now but after that second moon appeared yesterday we lost 7 patrols and 2 of Reynolds’ response teams, now every time we get some intruder the people refuse to leave if Reynolds is not with them and we lost many of our strongest people”

Motioning with his hand the priest asked “Lisa get me some water will you, thanks, you see we could have probably taken care of the bears by ourselves before but we lost most of our strongest men and nearly all our best weapons with those response teams”

Congratulations, your minor regeneration has recovered 1 point in every depleted attribute

The unexpected but welcome message nearly scared the crap out of Aaron as he was concentrating on the priest’s words, now that was truly unexpected “Thanks for the information father we may have to ask some of the survivors to recover the gear from our helicopter latter is that okay?” “Well, I don’t really know if the men are gonna trust you enough to leave our perimeter with you Mr. Sanders, I think only Reynolds could get them to do it and he will only be back in another hour or two” “I understand, I guess we should take care of those Owlbears first them, do you mind if we walk around the camp while we wait for him?” “Not at all just try not to upset our people, the order at the camp is fragile as it is”

Each of them got up and shook the old priest’s hand before walking out of the church, the sun was still high in the sky but it already had a little of the orange color that indicated the end of the afternoon, Aaron could see a lot of people finishing their daily chores and stealing glances at the sky to check the time, after a second Beta two stopped at his side “Loki I want you to find that FBI agent who contacted us before and confirm the priests information” “You think he is lying?” “Probably not but it never hurts to be certain, plus the good father may not know everything” “what exactly do you want to find out?” “Well, you realize that the government can’t evacuate all those people, they’re too far away from both ours and Canada’s new borders, and look at them.

Although there are some who have given up most have a purpose, they’re organized and working together chances are that, if they survive long enough with this level of organization, they can actually get more survivors and grow into a small city state, the government is more than happy to provide heavy military weapons and make their chances of survival far higher but they want to make damn sure their leader is stable, they don’t want this to come back and bite them in the ass later.” “are you serious? You do realize there is like, thousands of people here right?” “The TALOS 3 inbuilt computer is the best one we have and you’re more suited to this than Eric so…” “Fine, I will find the guy just give me some time.”

On his helmet’s display appeared the picture of a 40 years old blond men with a square jaw and serious face, at its side was the information, Special agent Carl Sherman 43 years old, 6 years with the FBI white-collar Crime unit, there were also the agent’s exact measurements, Aaron started to walk away from their group intending on finding a quiet place to engage the cloaking device on his armor when the church’s bell rang.

Lisa, the policewoman they meet before, ran out of the building as fast as she could, relief flooded her face when she saw they were still close, she shouted at them “Hey, if you still want to take care of those creatures we need your help, now!” at the other side of the camp the loud noise of an explosion rang and screams of fear started to sound out as well was the sound of guns being fired, Aaron smiled despite himself, at least now he didn’t need to search for a single person among 35 thousand without revealing it to anyone.