Matt drove his armored vehicle toward the city of Denver.

This kind of armored vehicle had been named Viper, after the original model which was a cannibalized Dodge Viper with armor plating attached.

Currently they were made from any available sports car because they had electric motors that were larger and capable of high speed.

Today Matt’s job was to go to the hospital and scavenge parts from the medical machines.

Even though the world had ended the Helios reactor continued on, being self-sufficent.

This meant that the survivors had no lack of electricity.

However, electronic devices were another story.

With the human population decimated there were no people to manufacture items of any sort.

Therefore parts must be scavenged from the remains of large cities.

Around the time of the apocalypse, work had begun on domed cities.

They were constructed on the premise that in order to lessen humanity’s impact on nature, they would need to use less of the earth’s surface area.

So large domed cities were built that extended both upward into the sky and downward underground.

These cities were never fully completed to the point where people could move in.

They had essential facilities and the buildings themselves but there was nothing inside.

No furniture or supplies were brought in before the apocalypse.

When the apocalypse happened genetically altered animals, which became known collectively as chimera, began to attack humans.

These unfinished cities quickly became the refuge of the remnants of humanity.

Because they were empty the people who took refuge there eventually became scavengers, finding and bringing whatever they needed back to the dome.

Matt is from a dome in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

Because of the discrimination against those with foreign genes only the Defiled were called upon to take on the dangerous scavenging missions.

Also the less pure you were the more often you would be called on to scavenge.

As a 15 percenter Matt was practically a full time scavenger.

As Matt reached the hospital he parked his Viper in front and got out.

He pulled out his defensive equipment from the back.

He had a sword, some flashbangs, and an animal Taser.

The reason he had a sword is because the Immunes hate the Defiled and don’t trust them.

Because of this firearms were restricted to Immunes only.

This fact is what kept the Immunes in power and the Defiled powerless.

Matt strapped on his gear and headed into the hospital.

He continued from room to room cannibalizing the medical equipment for important parts.

Occasionally he had to shoo off a few harmless chimeras.

If you were to name these creatures they would end up sounding ridiculous.

There was a small group of squirrels that had feathers and when approached began vibrating.

A couple of them actually began flying away and the source of the vibrations was revealed.

They had been infected with hummingbird DNA.

What would you even name such a thing? Humming Squirrels?

Inside the building there were a good number of these harmless chimera.

Matt continued with his task, gathering parts and placing them in the back of the viper.

Soon enough Matt had gathered enough parts and he prepared to leave.

He put his gear away and started up the viper.

Then he noticed that he had dropped an important component near the door of the hospital.

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He grabbed his sword and walked over to retrieve it.

He had almost reached it when…

BOOM!!

The viper exploded sending Matt flying through the glass doors of the hospital.

Matt struggled to stand up while looking at the flaming remains of his viper.

However, it was in vain as he slipped into unconsciousness.

When Matt awoke the sun was already sinking down into the western sky.

At first he was disoriented and wondered why he was lying on the ground.

When he saw the blackened husk of the viper it all came rushing back to him.

He stood up and felt a sharp pain in his side.

He looked down and saw that he was covered in blood.

There were small shards of glass imbedded throughout his skin.

Even worse there was one large piece that had pierced his side.

Fortunately, or ironically, the door he had been thrown through was the front door of the hospital.

Although the medical machines did not work, thanks to his scavenging, there was sure to be tools he could use to remove the glass and bandages to stop the bleeding.

Matt walked through the halls until he found the nearest first-aid kit.

He used tweezers to remove all the small shards of glass and then carefully he pulled out the large piece.

Quickly he used the stitching kit to sew up the large wound and proceeded to bandage all the wounds.

After patching himself up Matt left the hospital to look at the wreckage of the viper.

He walked up to the front end and let out a curse.

“Damn it, I was afraid of that.”

The epicenter of the blast was in the area adjacent to the motor.

This was bad because it meant that the vehicle did not explode on its own.

In an electric vehicle the only flammable part is the battery.

But, the battery is situated in the back of the viper.

Therefore, if the epicenter was in the front it meant the car had not exploded by itself.

Someone had attached a bomb.

The bomb must have been set to explode a certain amount of time after the viper started.

“As I thought, it must have been the 1 percenters.”

Like the name suggested the 1 percenters are humans who have only 1 percent foreign DNA. They were on top of the social structure of the Defiled.

The Immunes hated genetic impurities so much that the only Defiled they would even speak to were the 1 percenters, who had no visible difference from Immunes.

Because of this many 1 percenters worked as they eyes, ears, and arms of the Immunes.

This group of 1 percenters was essentially a gang and the Immune’s personal hit squad.

The events that led up to this attack on Matt happened about a week ago.

One day he was bringing in his scavenged supplies.

That particular day there was a small group of 1 percenter girls, which were not part of the gang, looking for parts.

One of the girls made a seemingly innocent remark to another.

“That guy is pretty hot even though he’s a 15.”

It turns out that a gang member had overheard and that another of the gang members was interested in that particular girl.

So they decided to strap a bomb to Matt’s viper and kill him the next time he went scavenging.

“Even they can’t just kill me outright so I’ll be safe if I can make it back to the dome.”

Matt then set off down the empty street to find a place with shelter and food.

“I’ll show them they can’t kill me that easily.”