Cait woke me up early and told me it was time we got started on our work. What it was however he didn't say. He was, clearly, excited to get going and we headed out from our temporary stay at an abandoned wreck that was once another ponies home.

We had arrived there as the rain began to take another turn for the worse several hours into our walk. With little else to do but clear out the Radroaches that had dwelled within. Though several questions had yet to be answered, the 'Razor Hail' was the first of such things. The answer was far from what I had expected.

"It's the old weather factories." Cait dismissed it, "When the Pegasus ponies of Equestria locked up the sky and left the factories on full tilt, they turned on ALL of them. Including certain machines that were only meant for the coming of the seasons. Unluckily, Vanhoover was the center of winter." he deadpanned.

I didn't get it, if it was always winter, "What about the snow?" I finished the thought aloud.

He chuckled, "That's the funny thing, snow and hail melt into rain from the irradiated atmosphere trapping the heat. A lot of places have become a literal desert where there once was a luxurious forest. Ice however, that's thick and large enough to stay intact long enough to collide into the ground. Several of these machines now float around seemingly unwatched or guided, trying to distribute ice to collecting stations that no longer exist." he rolled his eyes, "As for how they keep getting enough resources to produce this ice is beyond me. The enclave have no presence here last I checked, so the leading rumor is that they're rigged to water talismans and powered through the same method into the snow machines, the end of the current also would provide decent supplies for self sustainment of production materials."

"Are they a large problem?" I asked him, honestly curious how anypony would be able to live through such risks, especially without a pipbuck to tell you when it was coming down.

He simply shrugged and sat upon one of the many piles of interior rubble while Scrapyard chewed on a dead Radroach, "Not like it's raining all the time. In fact it's pretty rare to run into one of these. Though most folk know that all the R.H. is connected to rain makers, so it's usually a bad sign when it starts raining around here."

That sated my curiosity about the weather, and why the sky hadn't cleared yet in the past few days, "What about-" I began but he interrupted with a chuckle.

"As much as I appreciate your interrogation, mind if I ask you a few questions in return?" he pointed a hoof at my chest accusingly, "I Can't just let this be one sided you know."

I thought over the request, looking him over. His emotional state revealed nothing about what he was going to ask, I sighed internally, my voice being much too quiet in comparison to the earlier happier questions I had for him. Enthusiasm only got one so far, "As long as it doesn't endanger my Stable." I replied, not out of a need to protect the scientists, oh no, but if it was ever endangered, I balked at what would happen to my fellow changelings if such a thing was to occur.

Cait raised an eyebrow, as though if he had any surprise, he hid it well, "Fair enough, first question, think of a name for yourself yet?" I shook my head in a negative causing him to sigh, "Alright, next question, what can you tell me about yourself?"

I looked down a bit, biting my lower lip between my jaw and fangs, yes I had fangs, just like other changelings, though nowhere near as present as the others, "Well... I was born in a test tube with 29 others in my batch. We were tested on and underwent accelerated growth to undergo teaching and preparation for an objective that wasn't told to us. After time they took the 'defectives' out of the batch and with the remaining we spent time learning magic..." my next words drew a deep frown from him, "we wore explosive collars they told us were to help us learn. Though they were instead used to maintain some measurement of control and order. After that we were put under excruciating circumstances in learning to fight, in the end we were forced to... fight another batch... to the death..." I shut my eyes, failing to stop a tear from forming as I thought about it, so much senseless death had occurred on that day.

Cait stared, quite blandly stating, "So these scientists made you, taught you, trained you, and enslaved your people?" my lack of response made him sigh, "Enslaving means taking the right of someponies will away and forcing them to do things they don't want to or be punished or killed."

That about summed it up actually, I nodded as he continued, "And your not going to tell anypony where your stable is or how to get into it because your people would be the front line defense and they would all die before we reached your scientists?"

I collapsed on a pile of rubble burying my face in between two larger segments of rubble, wings spread out to either side in defeat, he sighed, muttering near quietly under his breath, "jeeze, sounds just as bad as the other scribes..."

A nuzzle into my side interrupted the moody gloom that seized the room. Looking around for the source I spotted Scrapyard's face gently pressing into my side.Quietly I reached one of my hooves down to scratch him behind the ears and he leaned into it, occasionally giving a return lick. It had the effect Scrapyard probably desired, drawing a smile out of me despite the situation, "Its a mess."

I turned my attention to Cait again, he was sorting through the various guns we had acquired and was dismantling them, taking any nicer looking parts from other guns, a straight barrel from one, a chamber or handle from another, and putting them together. As he worked I changed the subject, "What were you doing in that mall anyway?"

He sighed, "I was there on a job, contract actually." he chuckled as he reminded himself that I had not the slightest clue on how the wasteland worked, "Somepony hired me to wipe out the leader of those raiders as well as break their ranks. That brute and his... underlings... have been a menace between Glyph and The Hole's suppliers as well as dozens of other small settlements. Luckily for us we had the element of surprise on the big one thanks to your distraction, and the rest became predictable as a result of the leadership lost."

"Pardon?" I asked, confused, "Aren't raiders just other ponies?"

Cait growled, snapping a rusty junk barrel in two, "Don't compare other ponies to raiders. Raiders are sick in the head cannibalists who take delight in raping and torturing their victims before killing them and making an horrid art project out of the corpse. No more sentient than a feral ghoul, but even they have a pack like mentality. Big honcho goes down and their confidence shatters. I estimated we killed about a third of them as well as their leader, the rest scattered and while there will be many smaller bands, they won't be anywhere as strong as when they still had that brute guiding their efforts."

"They EAT ponies?!" I stated each word in full fledged shock.

Cait made a disgusted sound, "Again, don't compare any decent folk to raiders. Surefire way to get you killed in some places." he finished the last of his salvaging and presented two shotguns, one a bit shinier than the other. I noted that as he passed that one to me, "There we go, much better on our weight if we have a few better quality weapons than a bunch of near broken trashed ones."

"T-thanks..." I said, taking the shotgun a bit nervously from him. Wait, nervously? What? I shook my head to clear it, "any other questions Cait?"

He packed up his own shotgun handle up, easily turning one of his saddlebags into an impromptu holster should he need it quickly before answering, "What combat skills and spells did they teach you in that stable? Would like to know if were going to be sticking together for a while."

I sighed, "Only a few months of learning here, Not much skill besides learning what various weapons worked. I prefer a sniper rifle though. As for spells..." I sighed, resuming the scratching of Scrappy's ears as he nibbled playfully at my other forehoof with his tongue and playfully soft bite, "Never learned anything offensive. Never had head for it, and they refused to teach anything else. Though we still have a bit of our... innate... magic."

"Innate?" he pressed, and I looked away, "Oh you mean those myths about changelings turning into other ponies and hypnotizing their loved ones while draining their life with a bite?"

Now it was my turn to look incredulous, "Where in the world did you learn that rubbish?"

"Propaganda. Changelings were against Equestria in the war remember?" he mocked an commanding tone, "Only you can prevent Changeling Espionage!"

"Well..." I started, "Not sure about that hypnosis stuff, never even heard of that, nor do we... bite." he raised an eyebrow, "We Changelings... It's hard to explain." I don't think he would like it if he knew that our magical batteries were other ponies emotions. Shouldn't matter over the short term or long term. Recovery from years of being around Changelings would only take a few days after several months of exposer, "As for the disguises..."

I concentrated, forming the mental image of a green flame erupting from both the top of my head and bottom of my hooves as I thought about every detail I knew about the stallion in front of me. Quite an easy process when you have a pony in front of you to copy the appearance of. Cait blinked at me in shock while I stared back at him. After a few moments he stated, "Wow, I sure am a looker." he chuckled.

I let go of the spell in order to not waste any more energy, Eesh I hoped we reached a town soon, I needed a major restock if I was to maintain any magic. Cait merely pouted, "Aww, was hoping to ask him how he got so handsome." I blushed and he chuckled at my embarrassment, Scrapyard joined in with a cackle, only furthering my embarrassment and light green blush going across my face.

I looked down and away, allowing gravity to hide my face with a few strands of hair, "The better educated of us can turn into things other than ponies and even hide things like armor behind their appearances or take on the physical and magical abilities of those who they had disguised as." Cait looked at me with worry on his face so I added, "Though only a few of us have mastered magic to that point... Most never do." he relaxed.

I shrugged and he replied, "Close and mid range specialist here. I am aiming for destructive magics though my previous group forbade it for some reason, once I got free of obligations to them due to a difference in perspectives I headed out west to help the ponies of the wasteland however I could. Though that tends to be clearing out one side or another as of late." Cait rolled his eyes, "At least it isn't escort or scavenging. Anyway, I have a small variety of spells as is the normal of most unicorns. I might not be the strongest in magic but I might as well be part minotaur when it comes to hoof to hoof."

"A minotaur huh?" I asked skeptically. The minotaurs in my book had been described with the warning 'Extremely dangerous, do not engage in close range, kill on sight'. Not that he needed to know that.

He raised an eyebrow, "Don't believe me?" he challenged, "Hoof wrestle, now." he gestured to a flatter piece of rubble and I sighed, unable to decline.

The moment I put my hoof in his, he grinned and the limb seemed to stop moving, no change in pressure beyond an incredibly tight vice of his hoof around mine, "Ready?" he asked casually.

I nodded and began to press my weight against his hoof. I didn't even budge it. I tried putting my entire weight on it only rewarded by a small yawn from Cait, right before he casually slammed my hoof into the concrete with no warning, causing an indentation and a searing pain to go through my hoof. I yipped, withdrawing several paces and nursing my injured hoof. "Told ya so," he added.

When the night passed we began to travel eastwards again. The wasteland providing it's bleak grey pallet for coloration as we progressed. The rain had finally stopped, signifying that the weather makers above had finally passed on elsewhere in their drifting. I took note of how Scrapyard always darted ahead of us for several yards, often stopping to a noise I couldn't hear or to sniff at something we couldn't. Occasionally Scrapyard would bark and bring back an item or two. A few cans of Cram, a box of Sugar Apple Bomb candy, and even a tin of something called Mintals.

As we progressed I began to notice that we were heading towards what seemed to be a fenced off area containing broken skywagons inside as well as a small house attached to it. It was grimy, dirty, and looked incredibly unstable, though it was more intact than several other buildings for some reason. Though the collapsed remains of a wall near it indicated that it probably was once a much larger structure. I blew some strands of hair out of my face before looking to Cait, "What are we doing here?"

He grimaced, "Slavers have been taking people here and collecting in order to sell them off to the highest bidder, a contractor wants us to save somepony who got taken by them before it's too late."

Slavers? I imagined Vault 103's scientists and the batches of changelings they grew only to force them to learn wartime skills. I frowned in turn and opened my mouth to reply when Scrapyard growled. Immediately Cait grabbed me and threw us both behind a small pile of rubble as Scrapyard leapt behind the remains of what once must of been a fence, his grey fur blending into the background as though he was just another piece of debris. Seconds later the front door of the junkyard shack opened and out came a pony dressed in black leathers for armor and yet another shotgun for a weapon. Seriously, how many ponies can use shotguns before it gets old?

The Slaver took a swig from a brown bottle and swayed unsteadily towards the back, the door sliding shut with an click shutting off any view of the inside. With a jerk of his head Cait signaled for us to approach thought he gestured skyward when I started following. I nodded, spreading my wings and taking off with the quiet buzz of flight much unlike any Pegasus ponies slower flaps. A disadvantage of wings full of holes I guess. As I landed on the roof I spotted Cait and Scrapyard moving against the wall, and looking over the edge rewarded me with the gag inducing sight and smell of the raider taking a dump into a pile of previous visits Egads the stench reeked. I moved backward a few steps. What to do what to do... My hoof bumped something, looking at it I smirked at the object. Ahah. Brilliant idea.

The Slaver pony never saw it coming. He wasn't aware until the firm crunch noise as the stone brick landed squarely on the top of his head. He barely let out a drunken slur to the goddesses before collapsing and then Cait and Scrapyard made their move, quickly stripping the slaver and tying him up with the cord of his own belt and gagging him with a rag that was on his person. After pulling him away from the makeshift... toilet. We quietly formulated a plan.

Cait was in favor of rushing in sword swinging and guns blazing but the stare from Scrapyard and my own negative feelings about putting the hostages at risk took him off the plan. Grumbling he pointed at Scrapyard and told him to make a better plan. Scrapyard then stared at me. "What?" I asked him, only to be rewarded with a continued stare, "What is it Scrapyard?"

Scrapyard looked over to the tied up slaver, who was now gurgling slightly behind his gag despite unconsciousness, then back at me. The stare resuming. I suggested, "Do you want me to... use their friend as ransom?"

Scrappy shook his head and pawed at my tail, seemingly intent on getting me to do something, "you want to... burry the slaver?"

The wolf considered it for a moment then shook his head. the gestures for attention continued and Cait answered, "You want her to disguise herself as him?"

Scrapyard gave a nod and sat back down, beginning to clean his own paws, giving a happy lick when Cait petted him, "Good idea Scrappy." he looked back at me, "How about you? Can you do it?"

In the end I felt gross. Not because I was dressed up as a stallion in what my pipbuck claimed was 'Mercenary leathers' over my barding and pipbuck, but because it stank. Of sweat, blood, grease, and whatever other... fluids... he had over them. Wishing I could somehow remove my sense of smell was a primary thought on my mind. Though I read the emotions of the shack I was met with a variety of results.

Fear for one, was the most present, coming from a downward direction, I could all but feel the emotion coming from underneath, not one bit of happiness or malice or even anger. Just fear. On the ground floor I could feel the various feelings of four or five ponies in the room. Some cheerful, others with a deep resentment and seemingly off putting malice. But reaching any further up revealed something quite unexpected. Lust, anger, hate, fear, joy... What?

I shook up the shotgun and put it in my new holster, I was disguised as an earth pony, so any magic or wings would be a dead give away. I took up the beer bottle with my hooves and opened the door. There were three ponies, only one of them horned, playing a card game over a box while a fourth smoked a cigar near a hatch I presumed which lead to the basement. The stairs were located on the far side of the room and I was greeted by the smoking earth pony, "Welcome back Tooth salt."

Must be the name of the pony I was imitating, I used what I knew of the ponies emotions and body shape to formulate a response somewhere along the lines of, "Thank ya'." continuing on I tried formulating a response, "Unless I'm countin' double I see a fe' a ya' ar' missin'."

The unicorn at the table rolled her eyes, "Told ya Tooth was drunk, can't even remember his own brother is having fun with some of the products upstairs."

I squinted at her, internally fearing that somepony was being tortured upstairs, but that didn't add up to the emotions, "'Avin' fun? Withou' me?" I slurred intentionally, "Nah ca' do." I began to head to the stairs at a hobble like trot as the cigar smoking pony rolled his eyes and spoke intentionally, "Try to keep her jaw intact this time Tooth. Damaged products are worth less than intact ones."

I pondered the meaning of that as I reached the second floor, the feelings were stronger now that I was barely a room away. I paused, a noise catching my ears, a steady beat of slapping sounds. What? I cracked the worn rusty door open, peering inside. Then I learned yet another common place horror of the wasteland.

There was a Slaver pony buck, dressed in similar armor that I now wore, he was holding a pistol towards a mares collared face as he rutted against her, forcibly raping her as he plunged in and out inside her, it took every last ounce of reserve to not blow cover by blasting him with a shotgun. His maniac grin didn't help, "Oh hello brother. Came to join in breaking the newest one with me have ya?"

I grit my teeth before replying, "Ya' Just giv' me a sec."

The slaver gave an uncaring grunt returning to his violation of the mare as I went behind him. I looked around for a weapon of some sort, one that was more discrete than a shotgun blast to the face. The dirty place must of once been an small apartment in the junkyard, for the ruined matress and broken coverards of what must of been a kitchen were both present. The whimpers and groans of the ongoing rape speed my process in search, when at last my eyes fell aware of a rusted knife, long forgotten and uncared for between two pieces of broken wood. I shut the door and went behind him. moving my hooves on the ground as though I was preparing to strip while in actuality I dropped my disguise. Allowing my telekinesis to wrap around the knife's handle. I pulled, lucky that the stallion was too concentrated on fucking his victim to notice as I approached. The mare noticed however her eyes widening and I made a shush noise to her, pointing at the knife then at the stallion rutting her. Her eyes remained wide but stayed silent as the stallion began to speak, "Oh ya! I'm going to-"

Oh no he wasn't, in a swift motion I brought the blade whipping around and into the front of his neck. He looked down, at the blade impaled in his throat, gave a warbled choked sound and fell. The mare fainted at the sight of blood. One down. After a few minutes she awoke and I had to put a hoof over her muzzle to prevent her from screaming, "Don't worry." I hissed quietly looking left and right, "I'm here to help. Please don't make every slaver left in this building aware of me."

She nodded and I removed my hoof, she spoke as quietly as I did, the collar no doubt restricting some access to her speech. It did look uncomfortingly tight, "T-thanks... can you get this off?"

I looked at the collar, it was just like the ones worn in 103. Right down to the faded brand of Robronco. I nodded, "Please get it off." she begged. I took out a screwdriver I managed to sneak in under my clothes and began to work, unscrewing the back plate. Instead of a four digit combo however, I found a transmitter rigged to a small pack of c4. Probably a detonator rig instead of wired to a terminal. I yanked out the crude improvision of an rig and pocketed it, I now had an idea. Disabling the rest of the device was easy enough. And with a gasp of happiness the rest of the collar came off to the mares relief. She hugged me, "I don't know what or who you are but thank you."

"Not quite out of the woods yet..." I muttered into her ear, Still need to deal with the others. I'll need your help for that."

She gave me a slightly horrified look, I explained, "I need you to pretend he's still raping you so that when I go down, the noise is still present. Give me fifteen minutes. I promise I'll be back. I want these..." I paused looking for the word.

"Buckers?" the mare suggested.

"that works..." I paused, before resuming, "these buckers taken down... Alright?"

She nodded, moving back to the matress, she laid herself down on it before starting to shake herself, rocking the makeshift bed and making pitiful sounding wails and groans. I mocked an "OH YEAH" from the slit throat of the slaver I had... Oh Celestia I had killed him. For a good cause but these weren't raider ponies... Though they did rape their victims. That demanded a death warrant right? Right? Ugh... Put it away 13. Put it away for later. I shuddered before resuming the guise of Tooth, opening the door with a general profanity, and slamming the door shut behind me.

"Denied?" the smoking pony inquired.

"Bucker don' wanna share, Gonna pick anotha' to break." I replied with a grimace, Passing him. I tripped, on purpose, falling against him, unknowingly slipping the small pack of c4 with transmitter into his pocket, "Oopsa daisy." I replied as he shoved me off him.

"Watch it." the smoker replied with a melodramatic glare. Seriously, their victim upstairs was a hundred times the actor he was. His face said anger, but his emotions said fear. "Ya' watch it," I replied in turn and headed to the hatch, shoving it open and closing it behind me as I went down.

They were all chained to the walls. Their locks crude hatches that barely kept each others hooves away from their locks and they were gaudy. Several looked plainly starved while others were newer, fresher. Even a few fillies locked in a cage in the corner. All of which had collars around their necks. I dropped disguise floating out my trusty screwdriver, "Don't worry. I told them, as they looked at me in shock, the awake ones anyway, "I'm here to help."

It took ten minutes to work all the collars off and to take the explosive transmitters, shorter to release each ones hooves. With a hush I explained my plan and they all nodded. I put the collars In a corner and disarmed all but three of the transmitters, one for each of the remaining slavers, and resumed the disguise of Tooth.

As I came back up and shut the hatch behind me the unicorn at the table with the two earth ponies looked at me skeptically, I answered their looks, "None of 'em are worth ma time." I replied, "Whatcha playing?" I trotted up to the table, looking as they played a card game consisting of enough mismatched cards.

"Wagonband." the unicorn dealer spoke as I leaned into both her and her neighbor.

"Mind if I watch?", The unicorn raised an eyebrow, "Wha'? I can't just buck the mares all the time." I replied giving her my best intoxicated toothy grin.

The earth pony next to me chuckled, "Look at that, our little toothy finally getting all grown up." I patted him on the back, successfully sticking the small pack of explosives under the collar of his armor. Three down, two to go I mentally counted.

A few minutes later the next device was planted with a well deserved slap after distracting the raider with a subtle pinch to her rump as the other hoof placed the explosive into her pocket. With a red mark on my face from the slap, I settled myself in for waiting for an opportunity from the final earthpony, an red stallion who called himself Big Gum on account for his toothless smile and well muscled body. I settled for what I did with the first pony and congratulated him with a pat on the back and the sticky explosive onto his back. Now it was just the question of finding the detonator. I made my excuses and went back upstairs. If I was right, either the smoking pony, or the dead one upstairs was the leader of the two, and I had to check on the mare.

She was still pretending to be rutted like a star actress, I alerted her to the situation and she nodded, I scavenged the corpse but found no sign of a detonator. The unicorn had no place to hide such a thing, which meant the smoking pony must of had it.

it took a while to notice it but when it had I had to resist the urge to facehoof. The button was ducktaped down. If it was released, the rigged explosives would go off. I would have to either steal it or... an idea popped into my head, "Liiiiigghhhttttt buuulllbbbb." I whispered inaudibly to myself. I made another trip to both groups and with the supplies either had I told them to lock the doors on their sides and only to open it once I told them the password I had thought up. Which was 'Green Light'. I noted that my pipbuck made a note of it. Noteception? I shrugged as I headed towards the exit, "Goin' out to pee." I replied bluntly to no one in particular, drawing only a grunt from the smoking pony.

As I left I smiled at Cait who was looking bored under the cover of a ruined wagon, various tic tac hoof games having been drawn in the dirt. With X's winning far more than o's and from the looks of it, Scrapyard was the o's. "Best 25 out of 49 he hissed, drawing a cackle from Scrapyard. How a wolf knew how to play the game in the first place amazed me. Though I smiled at the sight despite the situation, "All ready when you are. Their collars are disabled and the slavers can't reach them. If they try to detonate their own slaves, their explosives are rigged on them as well." I didn't tell him about the small piles of disabled transmitters and collars that also decorated the cell, but that was just minor details. I picked up my shotgun, redonning my own barding and discarding the filth of Tooth's as I loaded my actual shotgun. Man it felt better to hold this one in comparison to the rusted old man of one that Tooth had carried.

I checked my pipbuck, luckily unaffected by the heavy loose cloth that had been covering it in a lightless state of inactivity. I smiled at the familiar icons though it said my magical stamina was a bit below the halfway point from how much I had drained from my body. Once we were ready I levitated the shotgun and held the pistol in my mouth. The varmint rifle wouldn't be much good at close range, so I kept it stored in my saddlebags loaded, With a nod to Cait, we burst through the door.

Within seconds I had took aim at the biggest among them, the Big Gum, and opened fire on him with both shotgun and pistol as Cait rushed the unicorn, slewing alongside him a small ball of fire that he tossed into the face of the unicorn who barely had time to give out an alarmed squawk. Scrapyard however went after the smoking pony who calmly flicked his cigar away before drawing his pistol from a leg guard and took aim at the dog. I felt my heart stop as he brought it down on Scrapyard, but the wolf was quicker, dodging to the side as he lunged again for the pony, catching him on the neck with razor sharp teeth. The stallion gave a lady like shriek as he went down and Pulled out the detonator, I didn't stop him.

He gave a twisted smile as Scrapyard leapt away and with a tug the tape holding the Detonators button down came off, unsupressing the button. Everypony stopped as beeping filled the room. Each slaver stopping and looking behind them for the source of the beeps, giving a horrified expression before their heads, and in the smokers case, flank, exploded. I glared down at the survivor, the presser of the detonater, and raised a hoof over his head as he was bleeding out from the missing leg. Then I paused.

Was I really about to murder somepony I cold blood? He was crippled and defenseless now. More than likely he was going to either die, or live to enslave others again. But he was alone now, another portion of my head thought. I paused, and despite Cait's curious look I lowered my hoof... to the ground. "Why?" I asked him.

he didn't respond, fear irradiated form him in waves, "Why? I asked again. before yelling, "Why do you enslave your own kind! It was bad enough when it was just changelings! But your own kind?! What sort of twisted buck are you?!" he fainted. Though whether it was from my screaming or blood loss I couldn't tell. I shuddered a sigh as Cait put a hoof on my shoulder, "Why..." I repeated quietly...

"Because they needed the caps, and they couldn't find a better way." Cait shook his head, "Where's their prisoners?"

I sighed, trying to draw myself back together, "Green Light I called out."

Without surprise both the upstairs and basement doors opened and the ponies trotted out, taking some measures to avoid the blood and gore around them as a few took up the slavers weapons and ammo. Considering they wouldn't need it now. Cait gestured towards the door, "Take a right past the fence and trot that direction for a few days, You'll come across the pit."

The assembled ponies nodded, I notteed that the bags of food meant to sustain the slavers and their prisoners was gone now as well, though I didn't believe it, "Come on." Cait said, "We'll need to clear the way." At this point, I wasn't ready to think... I just agreed. It was just like killing my fellow changelings all over again. This gut wrenching feeling. The blood, and smell of burnt flesh, the gore decoating the wall like some sort of raiders art collection. I puked.

"Welcome to the wasteland," Cait commented, "You'll get over it in a few weeks, month at the most."

Half of me was disgusted, the other half... Well it hoped it was true.

Footnote: Level up: New perk: Changeling Menace(less): You attract 20% less attention when disguised or in combat. Who else hates aggression?

Xp footnote: 50% until next level.

Skill note: Sneak at 50, Guns at 50

Next Chapter: Chapter 7: Radio interest and Spiders Estimated time remaining: 14 Hours, 45 Minutes