SP: Aftermath- Kansas incident part one

“*Sigh* You know how the worst days start off good? No? Well it seems to happen like that. I'm keeping this record for myself over the Kansas raid, and what I went through there.. and it's for me alone, to show at my discretion, so this won't show in the archive or anything like that. Now, yeah, my day went off to a great start...”

Day started off like most, waking up from my phone's alarm turning on with “What you are” by Audioslave, and me quickly reaching over and shutting it off in less than a second, thank god for quick claws... yeah claws, for those who aren't dragons or where around at the start off all of this, I'll tell that now. In 2013 a nice little box came to a massive percentage of the world's population, inside was a vial, most didn't know off the bat it was blood, like me. Anyhow I was encouraged to drink it by a person and that's how it all happened. I got shot with pain and reformed into a dragon, an anthro with a surprising amount of detail to how I would've imagined myself. Unfortunately this was just the beginning, as it turned out, the blood contained a virus, a fairly infectious one that turned people infected with it into blood lusting psychopaths in less than a week... cheerful? Thought so, lots of people died, many more were turned into killing barbarians, and the rest? The last humans hole up in their cities and keep a tight grip on their parts of the world via an iron fist and gun, this might seem paranoid, but so do we dragons. We use our cities and giant walls to keep out anything with a lust for dragon's blood. We, however, have a little advantage, we are immune to the virus, with a small catch, we're all carriers of it. So that killed any direct human contact, and it made things pretty difficult when dealing with humans... kinda led to a breakdown in kindly communication. Recap done? Yep, guess so. Back to the story...

I hear the soft breathing beside me on the bed and smile, managed not to wake Jess up. She was a heavier sleeper than I, and she liked her sleep, she didn't like getting up early as I did. We had gotten married after two years of dating and it has went well since. I slide off the bed, careful not to move the bed too much... satisfied I walk out into the living room and then to the kitchen. The apartment itself was pretty good, if you were the moderate-sized apartment kind of person, you would love it. A 38-inch TV with a game system and free satellite, though the channels were all chuck-full of reruns, since Hollywood wasn't back in business yet... but when it does, I bet it will be awesome. The rest of the appliances in the house were just as modern, gray steel and tailored for dragons... which is to say a large fridge and larger shower, plus comfy chairs with tail-holes. The carpet was a deep blue and was rather hard to obtain, thankfully everyone got the rule not to scrape their talons on the carpet, or end up thrown off the balcony.

I pull open the top cabinet and pull out a bag of cocoa powder and coffee grounds, I naturally couldn't stand the bitter taste of coffee, but with chocolate mixed in it was made bearable. I start the coffee pot after filling up the back with water and pouring the grounds in the filter.

While the coffee machine starts it's making of coffee, I walk to the balcony and open the doors, which ends up with me getting blinded by the sun as it made it's breach of the horizon... why was I blinded? Oh yeah, because I had been it almost complete darkness... gotta love dragon eyeballs.

Wincing, I step out onto the balcony and let my vision adjust, which only takes a few seconds. Other early risers were out, plenty of dragons with those important early morning jobs, and also night dragons going home, tired for after a long night.

A golden quadruped dragon flew by in a real burst of speed that left wind trails hitting me for a good bit... where was that dragon off to?

-Probably some drag that is late for his job, there's always at least one.- Oh great, the alter ego in my head, Zael, is up. At least it was a good morning, quiet and calm.

-Right. Nice morning, probably means today's going to be shitty.- Already the second sentence and he's annoying me, damn.

-Good morning to you too, asshole.- I think back to him. He stays silent to that, mostly because I think he didn't want to argue with me this early. He luckily wasn't a constant chatterbox, so that's well, since it keeps me sane. While he might be a voice in my head that can take control at certain points, we seem to blend together some times, so that might mean that the split was caused by just small difference of opinions... still avoiding the psychologist.

I lean forward, gripping the rail and stretching out my midnight black and razor-tipped wings out till all the kinks had popped themselves out. In a way, the wings were the best part about being a dragon, since it enabled flight and the bladed tips could be used as a weapon... on the other hand, tears in the membrane were critical bleed-out points, and other parts are comfort, they still haven't made a couch that accompanied space for the wings. But, I see the benefit is better than any downside.

I fold my wings in and head back inside, using the slide-switch to put up turn on and raise the overhead light up so that it dimly illuminated the kitchen and living room. I pull me and Jess' bedroom door until it was almost closed, so hopefully the light wouldn't wake her. I look over to the other bedroom door, across from mine, it was shut so I guess Jason was still asleep too.

Jason was five and a smart kid, my kid. Genetics were really more apparent when it came to dragons, since Jason looked like a combo of both me and Jess, he had plates like I did, but they were colored blue like Jess' scutes. At the same time he had my black scales, small and non-reflective of light, with the exception of some blue scales that curled up like a thin line to the back of his head and trailed down to his tail, giving two lines on either side that complemented the black scales. Other than that he had my pointed ears, Jess' styling of horns and wings. As I had said before, he was a smart little dragon, at five he had his sentences down easily and learned new things pretty quick, only thing is that he was still at that age were certain behavioral concepts weren't understood.

Still, I loved him, and I severely doubt that would change, especially since Zael warmed up to Jason as much as I did. The coffee machine had filled the pot and the strong scent of coffee sank into the room. I pull out a white mug decorated with a little young hydra spitting fire in different directions... people's hobbies were still alive, and they would sell things like this in exchange for services, this mug I got for fixing a satellite receiver... and preventing the entire complex electrical system from shorting out.

I fill the mug three-fourths up with coffee, then added the cocoa powder till it was more like fife-sixths. A healthy stir later I sit down on the lone chair in the room (actually accustomed to dragon wings via the slots in the back for wings to poke through. I grab the remote and hit two buttons at once, the power button and the mute button.

The TV turns on after an audible beep and it shows the news channel, a hydress and a drake sitting at a news desk, talking about something. I hit the subtitles button so I can know what it is...

Just at that time the camera switches to the map of Texas and the nearby states, besides the standard weather points, the counties had varying degrees of green and red, and the colors in-between. The colors represented the potential psycho presence in that county. Scouts would go out every day and find groups of psychos for the hunter teams and so that someone's family vacation doesn't get ruined by a virus infected human. The weather showed it would be a sunny day somewhere in the 90's, which is a oddly high temp for February. Other than that it seemed Texas was rather free of psycho groups, so that seemed good, maybe they were dying off after all this time?

-Doubtful man, they survived for fifteen years so far, so it probably means they are learning to stay away... it'd be a first.-

At least he wasn't annoying all the time -If they learned that then they'd be it'd be a counter to dragon blood lust... why the hell is it dragons' they're after anyway?-

A feel a mental shrug -Like I would know. But if I hazarded a guess it was because the virus was found on a dragon, then again with the modified virus... maybe they're attracted to the virus in our blood?-  We had this mental conversation often enough, and it usually ended there.

-You're the one who keeps bringing it up. Shane.- Aaand he's annoying again. The news switches away from the weather and goes onto talking about a rumor that humans have made progress towards a vaccine for the virus... me and Zael both knew it to be BS, so we switch the channel to something slightly else, bringing up a re-run of the big bang theory. Twenty-five years was a long time, and even though the movie and TV show business had stalled, video games were still in production, though nowhere near as fast as before the breakout.

I hear the light sound of scratching coming from Jason's door... Bullet. I get up and open the door slowly, Bullet squeezing herself through the gap. Bullet always slept around or Jason, almost like a guard dog, but they both bonded pretty well. I still wonder how the dragon genes went and gave Bullet so many eyes.  Not many animals had gotten the 'dragonization' that most humans did, mainly due to the fact that nobody really got the idea to try it out, one hydra did after everything died down and ended up with an odd thing now called the dragofish... that sounds less odd than it actually looks. Other things like turtles and snakes didn't work so well, some died after a time, and others got a little bit of detail, one person ended up with a naga-like rattlesnake that seemed to freak out whenever a cockroach appeared... yeah, really strange. But Bullet was one of a kind, other dogs had been turned, sure, but none had as many eyes or the poison fangs she had... found out Bullet had those when she bit a psycho outside the wall. That psycho started shaking after a minute than toppled over in seizure... a wall guard took a video of it and posted it on on YouTube.

-Guess 'the hair of the dog that bit ya' wouldn't helped that guy any.-  Was what Zael had said when he saw that video.

Bullet gives me a greeting stretch and makes a small yip before running to the balcony, leaping onto the railing, then taking flight off into the city.  She did that almost every morning, taking flight to go and do her business before coming back for some food, but I had a definite feeling that the cat population would drop some more.

-I'm thinking three cats, what about you?-

-Four, and a third.- Zael chuckles lightly, he thought things like that somewhat humorous... well he is supposedly my darker half, guess it figures.  I go back to watching the TV show for awhile as the sun rose in the east, bathing the city in a golden glow. I pick my Iphone off the coffee table and check the time... 7:30, another two hours before my shift started. As a master sergeant I mostly did scouting with my team and supervised training of recruits, nothing out of the norm has really happened for at least a decade, since I plucked Ray's son, Adam, out of a swarm of psychos, who were promptly incinerated...

I get surprised by a pair of blue-scaled arms draping around my neck “Morning Shane.” She was getting as good as I was at being silent... didn't even notice her.

I grab hold of her arms “Hey Jess. Being a ninja are you?” She leans in closer “Well someone has to be in order to surprise you.” That was partly true, I didn't get surprised often, 'course usually when I am it's because someone suddenly grabbed me or the like.

She gives me a peck on the cheek before heading back to the kitchen and grabbing a cup o' java and sitting on the couch.

“How long until Jason's up I wonder?” Jess asks me.

“Give it thirty minutes max. When we're awake he's quick to follow.”

“Best get started on breakfast then, you know how hungry he is when he wakes up.” And I did, little guy had a bottomless pit for a stomach, I don't know where he manages to put all that food. I pop my neck with a good sideways twist before getting up and heading over to the fridge.

Pulling open the door, I try to figure out what I could make out of what I had... which wasn't much considering that it's been a week since my last trip to the store.

-Let's see, left over turkey, diced onions... hey, there's a couple bell peppers left, you've got eggs too, so why not make an omelet?- Okay... Zael just about pointed out all that's left in the fridge besides the two  half-empty two-liters of soda. I guess he did have a point about the omelet... wish I still had some bacon though.

-Then maybe you shouldn't have devoured it all.- He scolds, and that's ironic, since he was the one who CONVINCED ME TO EAT IT!

-What? Your fault for letting me convince you. Oh, and you love bacon as much as I do.- I'd smack him if he wasn't inside my head. He loved getting into arguments with me, mainly because he'd prove his point with technicalities... just like I would.

I pull out the containers of onions, turkey, a whole bell pepper, and the carton of eggs, which had only a third of the jumbo eggs left in it. I get started pretty quickly, get the egg going on the oven and drop some chopped onions in it before quickly chopping the bell pepper into thin strips and add that to the omelet. The turkey came next, quickly shredded from whole pieces to small cubes with artful cuts of my claws, I throw a bit of turkey on the omelet, then finish the cooking, turning over the omelet and making sure it was cooked good, before starting on the next one, and the one after that... until it was a total of eight king-sized omelets, three for me and Jess and two for Jason.

I eat mine quickly, since the clock was ticking and I'd have to be into work soon, but not before a good shower and a quick trip up to say hi to my dad.

I was just finishing my last omelet when bullet comes down into the balcony, looking somewhat satisfied. She burps out a little trail of smoke as I set my plate on the end table. That was apparently an invitation to jump in my lap because she runs up does just that, winding me a bit... it was kind of like getting shouldered by a rottweiler.

“Agh, Bullet! I was just about to get up.” She yawns and snuggles closer, which in turn pushes more air  out of me. Jess chuckles “She loves doing that doesn't she?”

“Course she does, but still, there's good times for her to do that, now be not one of those. Come on Bullet, up, you can have the chair after I’ve gotten up.” She takes a deep breath like she was saying “fine.” and just at the moment where I thought she wasn't going to, she wiggles to the side of the chair off of my lap so I can get up. When I do, she flops over, taking up the entire seat, rolling onto her back and digging her head  a little into the cushion. I smile and shake my head. I head into my room and grab a towel plus some black and gray camouflage fatigues to replace the denim jeans I was wearing now.

I come back out to see Jason stumbling sleepily out of his room... just in time.

“Hi Daddy.” He says as he rubs his golden eyes of sleep. A grin breaks out on my muzzle “Morning Jason, got some omelets for you sitting on the kitchen counter.” He snaps a little more awake at that and moves into the kitchen after his food. I enter the bathroom and shut the door behind me. It was good to have a shower like this, it was big enough to open my wings halfway to scrub the membrane and fingers of dirt,grime, or other form of dirtiness. The other bonus was that the water heated within a few seconds, not a couple minutes... speaking of heat, I found out a while later that I dealt with high temps easier than before, so the water that would normally scald a human, just felt like pleasantly hot water to me... I think it's something to do with my scales. It took maybe fifteen minutes to tear away yesterday's grime, most of that time spent on the wings.

I get dressed in the fatigues, baggy pants and a synthetic T-shirt with a zipper up front so that it could easily be put on by someone with wings. The only thing I was missing for my base uniform was the armor and a button that snapped on the T-shirt sleeve that showed my rank.

I throw the mildly soaked towel into the wastebasket by the door before heading out into the living room. Jason and Jess were watching cartoons on the TV, I recognized the show... it was an old one, back from when I was really young, Tom and Jerry. I smile and silently walk up to the back of the couch. Jason had finished his plate and was just relaxing now, focusing on the TV like it was about to do something awesome. I try not to chuckle, I remember when I was his age, grew up with transformers prime, Dexter's laboratory, Ed, Edd and Eddy, dragon ball Z, and more like these old cartoons. I kept watching them until I was around fourteen, and my interests took a different turn.

I lean on the couch, poking my head between them “Hey, watchya doin?” Jess wasn't surprised, glancing over with a smile, but Jason snaps his head up to me in surprise, which quickly turns to a small smile as he says “Wachin' Tom and Jerry.”

Chuckling, I ask “Tom and Jerry huh?” I look upwards to the TV, remembering the episode “And how many times has Tom gotten hit on the head so far?” That gets Jason thinking, he looks upwards in remembrance, counting.

He figures it out pretty quick “Tom been hit seven times.” I nod, knowing he was off by one, but I didn't care. “Seven eh? Well you guys have fun. I've got work to go to. Love ya.”

“See ya Shane.” Jess says as Jason tells me “Bye daddy!” I grab my plate quick and toss it into the dishwasher before turning around to face the balcony. I get a walking start and leap off the rail, snapping open my wings and getting some good flaps in, raising up a couple stories, I turn around and reach my parents apartment.

The apartment was good, since it was at the top of the block, and built with room for full-sized dragons, so it was more a penthouse than an apartment. I land on the edge, a twenty-foot projection that could fit a helicopter, or a quadruped dragon. It was decorated kinda like a terrace, a few ornamental plants and a patio chair. It was possible to get great sights from here, mainly at sunset and dawn, when the sky's at it's best. I could almost imagine an art easel out here, with some person painting a picture. The entrance to the building was pretty open-ended, you could walk inside, but in case of bad weather, such as the infamous Texan thunderstorms, a glass window could be slid from both walls all the way across the entrance, and still look like natural floor-to-ceiling windows... got to give props to the architect, he knew how to design. He made the entire apartment block take up a city block, with four identical copies of the building, each put together with a central staircase in the middle for drakes and other land-bound people to use. With four buildings, there was four penthouses, each had their edge pointing in between the cardinal directions.

I walk past the brick entrance and step onto the soft white carpet, the inside looked even better than the outside, large vaulted ceiling with plenty of space, the rooms from where I was standing split in two ways, one went to the living room and past that, the bedrooms. The other way had the kitchen (And the second, super-sized fridge) Along with the laundry room, and a study, that is never used for anything but storage. The walls were colored coolly, with a subtle blue and a decent gray border on the top and bottom. The living room was in plain sight, a white couch is set at a diagonal near the wall pointed towards a 42'' TV and entertainment system (which I happen to have salvaged from an abandoned house a while back) along with a nice spot where a quadruped could lay down with enough room to stretch out. The only doors were the ones that go to the stair entrance and the bedrooms... and just like about everything, was adapted for dragon size, with a push-style way to open them.

My mom was a late sleeper, so I k now she would be still asleep right now, but where's my dad at? As if on cue, I hear thunderous wing beats heading in from behind. I turn around as my dad falls into view, landing hard on the edge... honestly the first time I saw him do that I thought the edge would give way, but it didn't, luckily thanks to the supports on bottom that braced against the building.

Right off I spot that he was dripping wet, water glistening off his black scales... and that was odd, considering that there was a full-sized car wash-style shower in his bedroom.

“Hi dad... um, why are you wet?”

He shakes like a dog and flaps his wings to discharge some of the water, and flinging some onto me, much to my annoyance. “Well, you know the old 'bucket of water above a doorway' prank? Imagine it with a five gallon barrel and a skyscraper roof.”

Well, didn't expect that. I start the full explanation “So, someone filled up a five gallon barrel, got it to a skyscraper roof, then...”

And like expected he finishes it, “Pushes it over while a dragon is flying below, splashing them with water.”

I put my claws in my pockets “Huh, well I'd say that would be funny, but not for you right?”

“Yeah. Do you know how hard it is to get these scales to shine? That little barrel stunt ruined any chance of that.”

I bust up laughing, and Ryan raises an eye ridge “What's so funny?”

I stop laughing and say with a grin “You talk about your scales like a girl would obsess over her hair... or scales.”

He put's off a glare that's enhanced by his eyes “So you're comparing me to a girl?” I nod, my grin getting wider. The threatening look goes out of my dad's gaze and posture, and he smiles too “I can't wait to hear you complain about your own scales, then I can call hypocrite. Even Alex and Ty care for their scales as much as I do.”

My dad walks inside with me “Well I can bug 'em about it too now that you've said that.” He walks into the kitchen “You do that, they're bound to get you back just as much as I will.” He gets the the super-fridge, a giant steel box that fit a full meat locker, and leans back on his haunches. An interesting feature of quadruped anatomy allowed them to lean on their hind legs, kind of like the meerkat does, for a couple of minutes without discomfort, this frees up their forelegs for well, anything.

He opens the meat loc- I mean super-fridge and grabs a rack of raw cow ribs off the top shelf. I guess to him it was the breakfast of champions, either that or he was a serious carnivore like I was... never had the nerve to ask. He holds  the ribs in one claw while getting down off his haunches, then moving over to the 'fry pit' which was across the kitchen. The fry pit was basic a sideways grill/toaster, with the addition of dragons fire-breath, an idea was struck that meat could be quickly cooked outside of regular methods, the pit  was the result of that idea. The 'pit' sat into the floor and looked like a big toaster with a steel lid (which was up by the way.) He places the ribs down in between the racks and hits a button, causing the iron racks to close and hold the ribs in place. I step back as he draws a deep breath... and and bears a fiery torrent to the ribs. Flame coiled some out the edges as the ribs were cooked. After at least ten seconds he stops the blast and sits back, waiting for the ribs to get done smoking.

That was the other thing about dragon anatomy, well at least thirty percent of dragons at any rate. My dad had a pair of corrosive acid sacs in his lower jaw, while the top had a flame mix that, depending on the force applied when 'breathing' fire, could be altered temperature wise. Some dragons had 'dual-action' breathing power, like mine had the fuel air bomb type, others had a second pair of sacs that allowed different modes of fire breathing or something different all together.

My dad mumbles “Fifteen years and i'm still not used to this.” The pit beeps and the rack pops up, displaying the finely well done, yet slightly scorched, ribs. While I was looking at the ribs dad had pulled a plastic tray out with his tail and slid it over in front of the pit.

I grab the bone of the ribs and toss it onto the tray “You've got plenty more time to. Hell, you might even outlive me.

He goes still “I really don't like that thought.”

I nod “I don't think any parent would.” He uses his right foreleg to pick the tray up and he hobbles into the living room with me. He sets the tray down by the end table and lays down. He brings a claw to the end table and softly taps the glass top twice with his claw, and the TV flickers to life. The end table was yet another mesh of tech, dragon comfort, and furniture, as it contained a claw-safe touchscreen interface and acted like a remote for the TV, while still being able to put on a nice set of décor.

The news showed up on the TV, going through the five-day forecast.

I say blatantly “You know they never seem to be accurate whenever it comes to predicting weather?”

My dad nods his head, and proceeds to use a mock voice of the weather dragon “Only ten percent chance of rain today, so enjoy that sunshine.” He snorts and falls back to his normal voice “Hour after he said  that a torrent battered the city for the entire day, and all through the following the day.” He grabs hold of a rib, and using his other claw to hold the ribs, tears off the entire rib slowly.

I put on a thoughtful expression, realizing a certain fact “We always complain about the weatherman's inaccuracy don't we?”

-Yeah, so stop talking about the weather. I have a little quote for you “Only the unimaginative folk talk consistently about weather.” Ouch, insult. Though he got the quote wrong, if only in wording.

-You can't expect me to...- I tune him out and focus on what my dad is saying... “We complain with good reason, there has been plenty of time for meteorology to become a precise field, instead people end up baffled.” He cleans off half the rib with a single bite, leaving the bone startlingly white... great, now I'm hungry again, and my stomach signals it.

“You didn't eat much this morning, did you?” My dad asks after swallowing the bite.

“I ate plenty, just not enough... plus your eating meat in front of me, what did you expect?” He stops mid-bite, before saying “Point made.” He continues eating for a while and I look at the TV, them mostly just talking about current projects in nearby cities, some my dad might actually be helping on. I look over as my mom walks in, bleary eyed and the very definition of tired, dark circles ran under her eyes, on a human they might have stood out, but with a white dragon? Much worse.

“Hi mom.” She looks around Ryan and sees me. A smile instantly lights up her face, and she seems ten times better than before. “Hello Shane. What are you doing here this early?”

“Well, I thought I’d stop by before heading into work. And adding to that, I'll be training a new batch of recruits today, which will probably leave me dead tired and asleep by five.” Dad looks up with an raised eye ridge and a bit of blood dripping down his muzzle “More of them?”

I cross my arms and nod my head, while saying tiredly “Yep, only difference is that these are all kids born around the breakout, so they don't know what it was like.” Dad notices the blood and uses his tongue to quickly wipe it off... yep, still think something like this is odd, so I guess my dad's not the only one still not used to it.

“Not going to give them an easy time are you?” Dad says jokingly.

“Oh I probably won't... then again I definitely won't.” My cheerful tone suddenly getting serious “They don't really know what it's like out there, the bad parts anyway. It's not going to be easy getting them used to the idea of psychos and their horrors.

My mom reenters the conversation at that point “They should already know the bad parts anyway, the psychos are a constant danger.”

-A few people high up in the military would disagree.- Zael cuts in, interrupting my train of thought. I hear Zael laugh “What train of thought?- I ignore him, I could bitch at him later.

“Well, Mom, the psychos haven't attacked us much in the last couple years, people are starting to relax, thinking that the psycho threat is declining.”

My dad looks over to me with a curious look “And is it?” Which was the wrong question to say.

I mutter numbly “No, not by a long shot.” They look at me for explanation, but I couldn't, I couldn't tell them what I knew...

Luckily I was saved from making an excuse because Bullet right then flew onto the edge... and she had my phone in her jaws.

-Looks like you forgot something.-

-No shit Sherlock.- I think at him before speaking “Anyway, the psychos will go down, it's just a matter of time. Come 'ere Bullet.” I take the phone from her jaws and wipe a bit of slobber off the side of the case with a slightly disgusted look on my face.

“Well,” My dad says slowly “Hopefully it isn't as bad as you make it sound.”

“I do too.” I say, while checking my phone for the time... I only had a few minutes to get across town. “But I’ve got to go, my shift's about to start.”

“See ya Shane, Love ya.” My mom says happily, just with a small undercurrent of worry that told me she knew I knew something, and didn't want to tell them.

“Bye mom, dad. Love you guys too.” I turn around to get going, and see Bullet sitting there wagging her tail.

I raise my eye ridge “Bullet... you're going to follow me around all day aren't you?” She just sits there, wagging her tail... which meant yes.

I sigh “Well, come on then.” I jump off the edge and start flying deeper into the city. I look over and see Bullet coasting lazily alongside me. I shake my head and look out towards the city. It was much nicer than it was before, cars didn't smash smog into the air, most of the buildings had that newly built look to them. Dragons were starting to get about now, and the airways were filling up, most dragons were more cautious flying than they ever had when they had been human and driving cars, so not many collisions happened, those that did only brought minimal damage.

-You know... I think now'd be a good time for me to switch in.-

-You going to torment the recruits?-

-Only a wee bit.- He says oddly in a serious tone. I really hated giving up control, but what the hell, I had a deal with him, and I knew he wasn't asking. It only took a second, but I could feel my senses recede and the creepy sinking feeling, and then Zael's in control. He flies along, not really paying attention to the buildings we flew past. Nothing was happening so I slowly draw my attention inwards so I could think in the deafening silence.

(Well look at that.) I pick up on his thoughts and see what he was looking at, a bunch of dragon kids in a water balloon fight, every once in a while a dragon would dip to a rooftop and grab from a massive pile of balloons and zoom back up into the fight.

-How did they get that many balloons?-

-Scavenging maybe? Hell if I know, but someone is going to end up missing... op, spoke too soon.- A gray dragon dodges a balloon with a dive, and the balloon was headed straight for us! Zael rolls hard, using his right wing as a paddle of sorts, he scoops the balloon perfectly and spins again, sending the balloon flying back to the sender, catching the jade dragon off guard.

Zael rights himself, laughing “I didn't think I could pull that off!”

-You did, and the shot even hit the sender, in the face too.- Zael stays silent, but I could still pick up his thoughts (Hopefully they don't try and pelt me with water balloons.) I honestly thought that to be a straight thought directly at himself, so I didn't interject that they wouldn't because of the uniform I/we had on.

The flight ends a couple minutes later as Zael lands in front of the 'recruiting office' which was just a small room (still able to fit a large quadruped though) with a couple benefits lists and a sign up roster, along with a lazy drake that analyzed anyone who came in. The place was located on the top of a mid-sized building, I'd be meeting the recruits in the room, give them the opening tour, a introduction video, and assigning them off to soldiers for training. Training itself had changed a lot from before the outbreak, as it had become a more mentor/student relationship. Three recruits for a trainer, who showed them the ropes, imparted wisdom, and got them prepared physically, with shooting, survival, hand-to-hand skills, and a lot of endurance training.

Zael walks across the rooftop and enters through the door... and twenty sets of eyes turned to look at him. Two sets belonged to a teal quadruped at the back, most of the others were anthros and a few hydras, with one lilac-colored flammie sitting in one of the fifteen metal folding chairs. The most noticeable of this collection was two dragons, one red and one brown, who just drew the eyes with their metallic sheen and sharp eyes that seemed to drill into you with intensity. A few others noted attention, a lime-colored hydra that was the only one not looking, as all three heads were focused on his phone, and there was another, a red and pink drake with a set of spike dreads (Still no idea how that works) and also there was a dark yellow dragon with black accents to his scales.

Zael breathes shallowly and walks to the front, sitting in a chair next to James, a old Vietnam veteran, an emphasis on old, since his age was somewhere in the late seventies. Since his change into a dragon, he had gotten a lot of his youth back as his physical form showed. He was built more lithe than strong, with frostbitten blue as a color for his scales, even had a kind of frosty look on them too. His scutes were a more conservative gray, like the color of his four horns than ran back close to the skull and had a kind of bladed edge. His ears were webbed and his eyes were colored a somehow lively gray. James was sitting there arms folded, legs stretched out and crossed, looking at Zael/me. Bullet curls up beside our chairs and stares at something on the floor.

“So, I'm here. Ready to get this started?” He says to James. He draws a sharp breath “Yeah.” He stands up, causing the chair to scoot back, the screech of it snapping all the recruits' focus to Jake. He walks over to the table that served as his desk and presses a few buttons on the laptop there. An overhead projector hums to life and shows a blank screen.


James looks up from the laptop solemnly “So you all want to be soldiers?”