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scavenging and doing recon. Most of them had some sort of badass military training. All I’ d ever done was simply survive. However, I have to say that it suited me. After all, prior to the end of the world, all I was good at was talking on the phone and giving presentations in meetings. Being a superstar in the corporate world does n’ t exactly prepare one for greatness in the world of the dead. It was the blue-collar worke r’ s skills that reigned supreme. I could n’ t build shit, and I could n’ t cook shi t… hell, in this new world, all I was really good for was cleaning shi t— and that was n’ t the gig I wanted.
    “ Listen boys, I need you to know something. We spotted a Jeep across the field yesterday. There were three men in it ,” Jarvis said as he pointed out toward the field beyond the concrete walls.
    It was n’ t the first-time people had found us. There were survivors out there. However, more often than not, they were n’ t stopping by to ask for a cup of sugar.
    Looking back at it, humans must have been the first population in the history of any planet where the term s“ survival of the fittes t” an d“ natural selectio n” did not apply. We took care of the weak, designing ways to support those who could n’ t support themselves.  The fat got fatter, the lazy got lazier, and the politicians got plenty of votes to ensure the cycle continued.
    In most ecosystems, a population will self-correct.  The y’ ll run out of resources, or some sort of a disease will kick in. It was Mother Natur e’ s little way of keeping things under control.
    Man was notably amazing at coming up with ways to dodge these checks and balances. Sure, early on we had our Black Plagues. However, once we got smart enough, we invented medicine and cheap ways to manufacture and deliver food, which kept our seemingly perfect little society on life support for far longer than it ever should have lasted. 
    In the end, and despite Ma n’ s best efforts, there simply was n’ t anything stopping Mother Nature from doing what she does best; skimming the fat off of the top of the population line. She always seems to have the final say over how many of any species the world will sustai n… including Man.
    One thing was for absolute sure. She must have been pretty pissed, because that line got knocked almost all the way down to the bottom.  Who knows, maybe from the Eart h’ s perspective, one could argue that Man was the plague infecting the world, and she simply gave herself a nice healthy shot of penicillin. 
    Either way, in the wake of the apocalypse, she reduced our species to just two types of people. The first were the scared and the feeble who were either lucky enough or smart enough to hunker down and hide. People who fought every day to hold onto the morals and the ways of a society pushed to the brink of extinction.
    The second were the psychos and the marauders. People who would do anything it took to make it, no matter what the cost to those around them. They survived by killing and taking, long abandoning any semblance to what made us human in the first place. 
    The inhabitants of Avalon fell squarely into that first category, and we were in a constant state of alert from all that live d… or did n’ t, outside our walls. The undeniable truth was that the ter m“ survival of the fittest" was suddenly back in vogue.
    Jarvis continued ,“ This group has me nervous, boys. I t’ s been a while since we saw someone just driving around outside our gates. A little too fearless, like they were testing us to see what w e’ d do . ”
    “ How close did they come ?” Kyle asked.
    “ They stayed on the far side of the field, but they just drove around while we watched them from the tower. Did n’ t even try to hide, which is wha t’ s got us nervous ,” Jarvis said, turning toward Kyle.
    “ Do you think i t’ s anybody we know ?” I asked with a slight pitch in my voice.
    They all knew what I