Maddox Kol, Emmett Mountain Disposal Site

Maddox Kol found himself at the Emmett Mountain disposal site in the Savage Divide. He stood on the rocks above the site feeling like a ghost of himself. His damp, tattered rags clung to his cold flesh. Looking down on the nuclear waste, he wondered to himself how things went so badly for him. His armor was gone, as were most of his weapons and supplies. What a falling off. He surveyed the scorched infested scene below, looked at the glow of the waste, and breathed in the rising stench of the sludge.

Only a few months ago, he had felt invincible. He was a warrior, a killing machine, and one of the first to battle the Queen. Maddox was the Alpha of his group. He was the strongest, fastest, and most agile. Much of that was due to the mutations he collected right there at Emmett Mountain. Back in those days, before the serums, mutations were gained by a combination of high level radiation and decontamination showers. Maddox hated the showers as much as the radiation sickness. The process took days, a seemingly endless cycle of eradiating and decontaminating.

Maddox wasn’t there to mutate. He had traveled there to find answers. The disposal site was a pivotal place for him. The suffering he experienced at Emmett Mountain left a permanent mark, one that couldn’t be erased. Perhaps, he thought, it would spark a memory or provide a clue. “Us,” whispered the Scorched. “Usss,” they repeated in their snakelike way. The whispers pulled Maddox from his reflection. “Clear your mind,” he said softly. He drew is blade, jumped from the rocks and killed them all. The deaths were fast and silent. Not one of them saw him coming. One by one they fell without resistance. “Ohhhhh.” Each strike was more powerful than the last. Each death brought increased satisfaction.

Maddox wasn’t quite the shadow of death he had been, but without armor or a legendary weapon, he wreaked havoc on the Scorched. The only damage he took was from the radiation, but his genes were starched and beyond mutating any further.

In a moment, the disposal site became a bloody mess, limbs and heads and guts, all turned to meat piles.

He climbed back up the rocks to get a better look. “Clear your mind.” Maddox lowered himself softly to the cold rock and then sat in lotus. The fog around him cleared just a bit. “Breathe.” He broke his meditation with an almost imperceptible smile. “Yes.”

Just north of the disposal site was a little camp by the pond. A fire burned outside, warm and inviting. Suzi didn’t know Maddox was there until he stepped into the light. She had been cooking the days kill.

“Well hi there, Sunshine,” he said.

Suzi didn’t flinch. “Umm. Hi, Maddox.” He stepped a little closer; his movements were slow.

“So, Suzi. Did Jack ever mention Project Warchilde?