Noah spat swampy mud as he shifted in the roadside ditch, adjusting the tinted goggles that protected his eyes. Mosquitos buzzed against his face and hands, ferocious in the heat of the Florida summer night. A foot above him, a line of four vehicles rumbled by. Two rusty police interceptors without windows brought up either end with two pickups in the center. Lights mounted on the top of the truck cabins panned over the road shoulders and peered into the empty buildings through blown out windows. Each vehicle carried the flag of the Florida Federation or had it emblazoned on their sides.

The background was the same as the old Florida flag: a white background with red bars, but instead of the state seal, a golden star for each state that had entered the fold sat in a circle on the center.

Noah held his breath as the lights panned over him. The thick layer of mud on his clothes and face did their job. Without slowing, the convoy continued on its way, red brake lights vanishing around a corner down the road. Noah let out a long breath and squirmed closer to the road above. Between him and his destination flowed a river. A two-lane bridge led to the gated community on the other side. Only the center of the bridge was cleared just wide enough to let cars through. Everywhere else, the rusted and burnt out remains of vehicles littered the edges of the road like a graveyard. A wall made up of shipping boxes, truck trailers, and bricks stretched across the far shore, a castle guarding the rich community that lay behind.

Noah panned across the defenses with his cracked binoculars. A single gate controlled entry into the community, topped with two large, sweeping spotlights and guarded by men and women with a mishmash of rifles, bows, and mounted guns. Some of the guards wore faded military fatigues, probably the remnants of the Army and Navy bases in the area. A few wore police vests, but most were in plain clothes. After three days of watching the settlement, Noah had a rough count of 200 people, mostly civilians with a detachment from the Floridian Army as a garrison.

Charging the gate wouldn't be hard, but that would be a sloppy waste of time and energy. Sure, they were mostly a ragtag group of rich people and a smattering of survivors from the military, but even an elephant could be brought down with enough fire ants. Enough bullets or a few lucky shots could still kill him.

"You always insist on doing these things the hard way. Just take out these nuisances and let's be on our way."

Noah could picture Eris pouting in the corner of his mind. It had taken some time to get used to the sudden jolt of hearing her voice spring into his mind, and even longer to stop talking aloud to her and instead reply through thoughts. Even after five years he still jumped at times when she caught him off guard.

"You're always so damn impatient. Do you have somewhere to be?"

"Have you not tired of that joke yet? Please, just get on with this."

Noah grinned. Her presence, as invasive as it was, kept him from going insane while he wandered the lawless wastes alone. Talking to a dog only worked for so long before one craved something deeper. May as well make the best of it, he thought. After all, he and Eris were stuck with one another until death, or until their deal was fulfilled.

Whichever came first.

Noah slipped the binoculars back into his pocket and came to a low crouch. The lights panned in lazy arcs across the bridge and the river below. He considered swimming, but there was a family of gators nesting on the shore that he would rather avoid. Eris could not save him from drowning or dismemberment. The bridge it was, then.

When the lights passed over again, Noah sprinted to the first line of cars, crouching down right as the light panned over again. Safely hidden in the shadows, he waited until the next opening came and bolted ahead, repeating the leapfrogging cycle until he was at the final line of vehicles before the gate. Fifty feet or so separated the mouth of the bridge from the defenses. The walls were roughly three stories tall and spools of razor-wire topped their crests. The guards paced back and forth along catwalks behind the wire, more bored than alert, and stopped to chat with their buddies every so often.

Noah hunched low behind an engine block as he waited for one specific guard on the wall to move. His entry point was a pillar of scaffolding to the left of the gate. When the residents made their wall, they failed to tear down the scaffolding all the way, opting instead to break it to half its original height and wrap the remaining metal in razor-wire to dissuade any climbing. The scaffolding only reached halfway up the wall anyway, so they probably didn't see any danger in leaving it where it was.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

They didn't expect any action in the heart of their new nation, after all, and no person could scale the smooth metal surface of the wall without being noticed. And Deviants, they never acted with tactics or rational thinking. Those creatures charged blindly, slaves to whatever madness consumed them. Such an attacker would lunge for the gates and be mowed down by a hail of bullets and arrows, assuming the guards could react in time.

Noah, however, was not like the Deviants.

The light's closed on his hiding place once again. The guard at the scaffolding tower turned and walked toward another guard at the main gate. Noah took a few deep breaths, planting his heels in preparation. The spotlights passed over, and he bolted for the tower. He was light on his feet, steps silent as he ran through the darkness. Leaping onto the scaffolding, he wrapped his hands around the rung and started climbing. The wire cut deep into the meat of his palms but Noah felt nothing, another perk of Eris's bond. Pain was a memory, the nerves responsible for that sensation burned away under Eris flames. All Noah felt as he climbed the metal tower like a spider was the thud of his hands and feet against cold iron, pure force without the taint of bodily anguish.

The thin gloves he wore were not meant to protect, only to hide the glow of Eris at work. Her familiar warmth rushed from his chest and down his arms to his palms like a stream of soothing hot water flowing through his veins. When he went to grab onto the next rung, the jagged cuts in his palms sealed only to open again the next time he found a handhold. Footsteps echoed from above and Noah paused as a guard passed by. Another fifteen feet separated him from the top.

After the sentry passed, Noah swiftly scaled the distance to the peak. With a burst of energy, he surged upward, each step propelling him closer to the top. Reaching the summit, he seized the highest rung, launching himself into the air with superhuman force. His fingers found grip on the wall's edge, nearly two stories above the ground. With a grunt, he hoisted himself over, landing on the catwalk with a resounding thud.

Rolling with the impact, he let himself go over the edge. The bones in his body cracked and shifted as he half-crumpled, half-rolled when he hit the pavement below. Such wounds did not heal as quickly as flesh wounds. Though they were painless, his legs failed to move.

Above him, the guard, tipped off by the heavy sound of Noah's impact, walked back to where he'd been standing. Noah threw himself to the side with his arms, placing himself behind a bush under the catwalk. The guard panned his flashlight around the catwalk and on the ground below. Light cut through the brambly bush, casting erratic shadows on Noah's body, but the guard, probably chalking the noise up to the rusty metal catwalk shifting, turned on his heel and went to join his friend farther down.

The infiltration was less than graceful, but it would suffice.

"Look at you. You look positively idiotic. Your legs were practically gravel with how bad you shattered them. None of this would have happened if you listened to my plan in the first place."

Eris's plan amounted to a reckless charge through the front gate and a trail of charred corpses in his wake. Noah was not above such tactics when they were needed. He was no saint, but he was not yet the mindless killer she wanted him to be.

This night was not one for spilling innocent blood.

"Just tell me where to go already." Noah brought his newly mended legs under him so he was crouching behind the bush and got his bearings, though he did not know the layout of the community. He was in the back of a playground. An office building stood closer to the gate and a dog park spread out to his other side. The community had solar panels on the roofs of most of the buildings. Along the sidewalks and roads, street lights hummed with pale white light. All was quiet and still, not a soul in sight besides the men at the gate.

Noah took a breath, squeezing his parents' dog tags to make sure the rubber rims hadn't slipped from their edges. Satisfied they would not jingle around his neck, he tapped the pocket where his aunt's empty lighter rested. Even Eris with all her influence could not quell fear in the same way she did pain. These mementos reminded him what this was all for.

"Fine. She's about a quarter mile away. Watch out for any patrols. These wealthy types have eyes everywhere, even if they cannot be bothered to use their own eyes." Out of the muggy night air, a red serpentine line emerged, floating in the night like a trail of flames that was invisible to everyone but him. Looking one last time to ensure no one was near, Noah left the hiding place with his pistol at the ready.

The fall of the county had not spared this community entirely. The mirage of wealth was marred with tents that stood on the rubble of some of the homes. The houses that still stood were a diluted souvenir of their former elegance. Gone were the perfectly manicured lawns, flawless paint jobs, and immaculate driveways. In their place stood shaggy blotches of yellow grass, bullet holes in the vinyl sidings of homes, and cracks that spread the length of walkways and driveways.

Noah kept to the shadows, moving from home to home. The path turned, leading him deeper where the most luxurious homes lay. A low whine approached him. Noah ducked behind a trash can as a golf cart with two armed men zoomed by. The odd sight of two men with rifles trying their best to look intimidating in a golf cart made him stifle back a laugh. Once they were clear, he rounded the corner to follow the path.