touch of nature ＊ JIYOO

2. "Factions and Troubles"

› 12 YEARS LATER, 2076:

The world was much different now than what some would have expected it to be. Ever since the start of Earth's 'New Days', as how the youngsters named it, everything turned into a scavenger's hunt for food and water supplies, electronics, lost belongings, medicaments, weapons of all kinds and most importantly, searching for survivors and a cure.

The unknown to the public virus mutated drastically, now consuming plants and animals as ways of feeding it's host, but also got weaker and weaker as it was harder for it to adapt to the new conditions of life. When the virus first began it's thrive, global warming was at it's peak and the weather was hotter than ever. Now that life was different than before and global warming was almost completely gone, the colder environment was a big enemy for the infected, making them weaker and slower. Most hid inside buildings in huge packs to keep themselves warm during the shivering days and nights... but not all of them.

Due to the lack of chemical laboratories and serious wipeout of most air hazards in cities all around the world, Earth's surface and atmosphere improved for the better and life was blessed by the mother nature's true wonderful magic.

Though, not everything was like in a fairytale, because humans still roamed around the planet.

The current people aimed for different things, a different kind of civilization. Some wanted to start a new independent life as a part of nature, some wanted to fight the deadly virus and end it's existence forever and some sought violence, doing anything for survival and power. This started the creation of factions with different motives and goals:

'The Icebreakers' - they sought nothing but peace and order amongst people by creating a new leadership and rules to follow, with one goal that only the most notable members of the faction knew of - seek and kill every person connected to SYM laboratories. They pursued a military kind of lifestyle, training newly recruited survivors to turn them into distinguished soldiers and scouts. Just like every faction, nothing was given for granted as they had to work and help out in different settlements and follow a strict order by their supervisors. Those who were stubborn enough to disobey the leaders and break any of the rules received the harshest punishments. Nobody, other than the main distinguished leader, his wingmen and the punished knew what happened during or after them.

'The Bluebirds' - they were mostly called Earth's peaceful free-roamers. No strict orders, no innocent killings, no stealing from those in need. Only sharing and caring for the people who wished to live as one with our nature. Of course, there were people who did less sharing and less caring than others. That's why the leaders 'Fatherbird' and 'Motherbird' created some simple rules to hopefully stop most from continuing their bad ways. If they saw no improvement in the behavior of their 'Birds', they had no choice but to abandon them to fly on their own.. or even worse. Who knows...

'The Bulldozers' - some believed that they were evil because of their faction's name, but not at all! They were a faction of suppliers and tradesmen, who only sought materialistic and social growth amongst the other factions and survival camps. During the day time, the 'Bulls' went around every settlement in the city, even the most dangerous ones, to search for buyers, while the 'Dozers' roamed at night time to locate underground bunkers, abandoned shops or houses to loot as many valuables, weapons and equipment as they could find. And lastly, there were the actual 'Bulldozers' who did the trades and had all the information on their buyers' requests. The main rule for them was to never leak information of a certain customer, or else they'd be punished to death... Yikes.

'The Sacred' - they were the most feared and despised faction of all. Formed mostly by morbid ex-convicts, scammers, murderous criminals and psychopaths, they brought destruction and death to whatever settlement, camp of survivors and infected hordes they found. They cared about nothing other than self pleasure, domination and killing anything they believed was fun. The only rule they had was that once one tries to run away without a notice, they would be killed in the most painful way imaginable. Their goal was to grow into a leading force, strong enough to defeat everyone and be the only faction in power. Literal psychos.