Welcome to Gaia! ::

The sea is calm as the moon shines down on paradise. Today it is more like paradise lost. the only people on the beach tonight are a couple of rough looking thugs. The two had obviously seen better days. " Hey Bob What we doing out here? Its warmer back at camp, and my bum legs acting up." The first of the two whines as he limps along. "We are out here trying to get a head start setting our fishin nets Lemmy. If we get there first we can get the best catch and maybe we get to go on a raid with the boss if we don't have to waste time setting our nets today. You know he take first come first serve." Said the smarter of the pair with a bit of self gratifying flair.

" Yea I know that Bob, but you know that my leg always acts up when there is zombies around. An I don't want to be eaten Bob. It really really would hurt ya know. An I hates Zombies." Whimpered Lemmy. " There aint no Zombies out here ya gimp. Now Keep a look out for things while i set the net." Leaning down to set the nets Bob was immediately disturbed by A poking in the shoulder. " Hey Bob does dead guys count as THINGS?"putting a hand to his head Bob looked at Lemmy in question Lemmy was pointing off down the coast at a body that had washed up on the beach. " Hey good find Lemmy." Exclaimed his partner. " He might have some good stuff on him." But as they neared the body their faces fell. " Dam a$$ holes naked. Aint worth a crap" Lemmy kicked the sand. only to have Bob duck behind him.
" Hey Lemmy is he moving? That looks like moving. Dam your stupid leg having to be right. Its a friging zombie. Kill it Kill it." The crippled raider looked around an picked up a good sized piece of dead wood to use as a club on the slowly rising drowned man. The makeshift club came swinging downward with a sicking crack as the wood met flesh. " Ha that ill teach .....ya?" Were Lemmys last words as the club was caught in mid swing by the naked man. Shifting his grip the man forced the handle of the club through Lemmy's chest like a toothpick through a piece of cheese. Seeing this Bob sought to escape. He made it to the edge of the boardwalk before he felt something enter the back of his head, and a warm feeling flow down his spine. Then he knew nothing at all. Everything he was flowed backwards. All he was shredded and reduced to base information. The mindless husk once called Bob was tossed back into the sea. The drowning would prove a mercy.

On the edge of town near the beach were two figures, they wrapped themselves in tattered cloaks. They were a man and a woman and kept to themselves as they walked through the streets. The woman ever so often would check her forearm, and then continue on to where ever they were going.

They walked the board walk for a little ways, and then turned back into the town. They walked for a ways and then turned down an alley.

As he turned down the alley the two people he had been following were waiting for him. They each held odd looking guns and pointed them at him. "Why are you following us," the man asked.

The two people whispered to each other, but they still held their weapons pointed at him. They stopped talking and the woman looked at her wrist guard again for a moment, and an expression of surprise appeared on her face. The two whispered again and then the man spoke, "we are curious as well... we are, researchers I suppose you could say. If you come with us we could tell you more..."

("He has a tattoo of a serial number #01 on his back" I am hoping that that tattoo means something significant... so I am jumping out on a limb here...)

(Ok, cool. I figured it has something to do with genetics, or possibly programming... I assumed it was something physical... anyway, enough of that)

"Alright," the man replied. The two people took up flanking positions beside Vagabond, both for better protection from creatures that roamed the streets, and perhaps from Vagabond... just in case. They walked towards the outskirts of the town, after awhile the man spoke again, "so, what is your name? And what brings you to this place?"

The man spoke again, "I am Jerle and my comrade is Cyan." He gestured to the woman and she nodded in response. "We are here studying all sorts of things: people, plants, technology..." The woman gave him a sharp look at him being so open, but he seemed to not notice, or perhaps not care. After a moment the two stopped walking and he spoke again, "well, here we are." They were in the backyard of a remote house on the outskirts of Paradise. The grass was overgrown, and the house was quite rundown, but otherwise there seemed to be nothing here.