The Earth we knew was gone.
Left with ancient ruins that had been destroyed since the last war.
It wasn't a war... of us, Humans.
But Us against those Aliens.
The year 2056 was the last year the Earth was recorded... not in notes or scriptures, but in ruined cities buried by the past.
For the last struggle of Humanity had been to launch the reserved Nuclear Missiles they had hidden to scare enemy Nations.
Not at Aliens... but down at Earth.
No one knows if it was hacked by those Aliens, or just a Human error...
In the end, no one still alive could tell the tale.
A thousand years since then, no one knows where the count started.
Humans, like cockroaches, survived.
However, being called a Human was considered a defect.
For living on the Mutated Earth, what was normal was abnormal.
Those who could adapt and evolve to the world were lucky... even the animals and nature survived the Nuclear Apocalypse.
But not Scrappy.
A Human that didn't evolve, a defective.
Though unsure of his roots, Scrappy lived the life of a Scavenger... along with others like him, the defects.
Most days, Scrappy would join a team of Mutants... People who had supernatural abilities. Some could use their mind to control objects from afar, or even had superhuman strength.
Well, he wasn't there to be their servant, but to act as bait for those Evolved Beasts, for a small piece of food.
"Hey Kid! Get in the back!"
Scrappy smiled, bowed his head, and immediately stood at the back of the mechanical wagon.
As he reached out with his burned hand, an old man took it and helped him get inside.
Staring at his burned hand, Scrappy couldn't help but sigh helplessly.
It was a mistake that could have happened to anyone when luck turned bad.
While searching for food beneath an ancient ruin they found with Mutants, Scrappy hadn't known that a small static electricity spark when he touched a metal surface would ignite his hand, caused by a liquid he thought was water but was actually a gas.
"Yow, Scrappy Spark! You gonna burn another Metabeast with that hand of yours?" said one of the men.
Scrappy smiled, as faking it and taking in some insults would help him conserve his energy, well what could he do, even if all of them were skinny as sticks.
Scrappy's young age betrayed his height.
"No, This will burn your flesh so that we could eat if you die outside." Scrappy replied with a smile.
Laughter erupted from the skinny humans inside the wagon, for living in the Outlands was the same as walking on a small thread as a bridge between two cliffs.
There was no need for them to lose balance and fall, because waiting for the thread to snap was more than enough for them to die.
"I think Scrappy would be a Hunger if ever he's a Mutant," said another man, referring to the feral mutants that devoured even their own to refill their energy.
Though cannibalism was prominent in the Outlands, especially for those Mutants who couldn't hunt Metabeasts, a Scavenger's flesh was still flesh even if it was skinny.
Laughter erupted once again, but was stopped when the door was slammed shut.
And the only thing illuminating them inside was the small holes where sunlight entered, which served as their breathing holes.
The silence was shattered by the engine revving to life, followed by the abrupt movement of the vehicle pulling the wagon they had entered.
All of them Scavengers were used to it... all of them knew someone would not join them going back home to the Settlement.
A few hours passed, Scrappy and the other Scavengers woke up from the squeaking sound of the door, opening with a metallic bang.
"Get out! Eat! and serve your purpose!"
One by one, the Scavengers went out and formed a line, waiting for the rock-burnt bread to be given to them, and a palm-sized amount of water.
Scrappy, after taking his share, scanned his surroundings.
They were inside a towering forest with an ancient ruin of the old civilization, now mixed with man-eating vines and dilapidated concrete with rusted metallic foundations.
Even though he wanted to ask where they were, he knew that no one would answer him.
Especially when Science had started to degrade since the Last Epoch.
Scrappy ate the bread as if he was a shrimp, slowly, taking tiny bites... he chewed the food trying to juice it out even though it was dry.
"Listen up! Get inside that ruin and try to lure those Metabeasts so we could have meat!"
Scrappy and the Scavengers looked at each other... even a faint smile was hard to find upon hearing of a food they couldn't remember the taste of.
Then, as a small crate was placed in front of them, their hidden smiles died out.
As one of the Mutants opened it, tens of different kinds of cold weapons were placed inside.
Nothing was sharp... all were corroded, and even one small wound from them could cause tetanus.
One by one they took a weapon, and Scrappy took something he could carry with his small body.
A rope with a rusty knife on its end.
"Good luck everyone, as always, any food you find in there... if you find any... is yours!"
Then all of the Mutants readied themselves... some stood with their literally flaming hands, some had their machine guns aiming at the entrance, while some pulled out swords and daggers.
Scrappy steeled his resolve, forcing his dried mouth to gulp away his fear.
Then...
Scrappy's heart hammered against his ribs as the scavenger in front of him took the first step into the Ancient Ruin. He followed, the rusty knife feeling impossibly heavy in his hand, while his thin and skinny legs trembling.
A few minutes passed, and the broken sound of a Metabeast followed by a human scream that was cut off in the middle resounded throughout the deserted forest.
The Mutants tensed, their weapons swinging towards the treeline. The gnarled branches seemed to twist and writhe, alive and lurking.
Everyone steadied, and held the line.
In a world lived in by the Evolved, Humans had only two choices... either follow the Mutants' rule, or be food for the Metabeasts.
The choice was theirs.