358 east roeser road | | Fourth Street extension

I thought we voted in a bond measure to extend fourth Street all the way to Lake Mary road. With all the development on Butler, we need a better way to get from east to west. Lone Tree and the interstate are tapped out.

So, insurance company dumped their Florida Policies, had another company over see ours till renews nest month. Got notice forced to do wind Mitigation And 4Point inspection. Well we did, thankfully have hurricane clips, and another discount, and windows I don’t have receipts previous owners had so can’t get that discount even though their hurricane windows.
Paid 2,300 last year, 2,200 year before. Been here 11 years next month started 1,900-2,100 all these years.
I’m told Slide insurance or Citizens are my only two options. Well I was told today $6,400 is due next month to continue insurance with out it stopping.
$6,400 have 2,380 in escrow, I mean really???. And doesn’t include Flood Insurance.
Disabled Vet Fixed Income Family, love our home 11 years 8 more years down road in first house and now faced with loosing it because Florida Plays games and aligns with insurance companies. Florida doesn’t care about the people they show that time and time again, last hurricane sound of us, flooding on east coast few wks ago. Bleed us, and force us out with no where to go because houses are through roof, rents are out reach.
Chest hurts from this and don’t know what to do.

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 74%. (I'm a bot)

At least eight people were apprehended by the police as they sought to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Causeway Bay on Saturday.
Those taken away included two activists and two performance artists, according to The Collective Hong Kong and Ming Pao, as police deployed en masse ahead of Sunday's anniversary.
According to a police Facebook statement, four people were arrested in all for disorderly conduct in a public place, or for committing acts with a seditious intention.
Four others suspected of "Breaching public peace" in the area were taken to police stations for further questioning, they said.
Two artists who, for years, were known for their performance art on East Point Road during the Tiananmen anniversary - were among those apprehended on Saturday.
A couple with white flowers, a dentist with materials printed with a slogan related to the crackdown, as well as a woman with paper-made white flowers were also among the people apprehended by the police.

Summary Source FAQ Feedback Top keywords: police^#1 Tiananmen^#2 people^#3 two^#4 white^#5
Post found in /worldnews and /HongKong.
NOTICE: This thread is for discussing the submission topic. Please do not discuss the concept of the autotldr bot here.

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 74%. (I'm a bot)

At least eight people were apprehended by the police as they sought to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Causeway Bay on Saturday.
Those taken away included two activists and two performance artists, according to The Collective Hong Kong and Ming Pao, as police deployed en masse ahead of Sunday's anniversary.
According to a police Facebook statement, four people were arrested in all for disorderly conduct in a public place, or for committing acts with a seditious intention.
Four others suspected of "Breaching public peace" in the area were taken to police stations for further questioning, they said.
Two artists who, for years, were known for their performance art on East Point Road during the Tiananmen anniversary - were among those apprehended on Saturday.
A couple with white flowers, a dentist with materials printed with a slogan related to the crackdown, as well as a woman with paper-made white flowers were also among the people apprehended by the police.

Summary Source FAQ Feedback Top keywords: police^#1 Tiananmen^#2 people^#3 two^#4 white^#5
Post found in /HongKong and /worldnews.
NOTICE: This thread is for discussing the submission topic. Please do not discuss the concept of the autotldr bot here.

Everyone's ready to get to the conference season. It's entirely possible some people were overlooking the final non-conference game. Would focus be a problem? Who would get through with the momentum? And would the games played today matter when the Selection Committee gathered? Let's find out.
*****
#1 UCLA 87, #25 Illinois 74. It's been a long road through a lot of difficult teams, but UCLA did what they set out to do: repeat a 12-0 start.
Bill Walton had 20 points, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was two blocks shy of a triple-double, and the Bruins (12-0) took out the Illini (9-3) to run their winning streak to 49 and finish non-conference's play undefeated for the second consecutive year.
"We look at every game as important," Bruins coach John Wooden said after the game. "We're not about to slack off, and we're not about to take our focus down at all. Illinois is just as important as Kentucky to us."
For a while, the Illini road the hot hand of Derek Harper to stay with their foes. Harper had 14 points by halftime as the teams entered the locker room deadlocked at 43. However, Reggie Miller's defense kept Harper out of the scoring column in the second half and provided the difference.
"It's a 40-minute game, and I wasn't there for 40 minutes," Harper said.
#3 Kentucky 67, #8 Michigan 58. If UCLA is the undisputed #1, could Kentucky be the undisputed #2? Voters can be weird, but we'll see.
Cliff Hagan led all scorers with 15 points as the Wildcats (11-1) ended their non-conference schedule in style with a win over the Wolverines (9-3), who had been hoping for their second Super Five scalp of the season.
"I think this shows we still have room for improvement," Michigan coach John Beilein said after the game. "We need to make some adjustments before Big Ten play, but I think we can find them and do something with them."
Kentucky's starters, other than Hagan, struggled during the game. Dan Issel was held by Chris Webber to a mere 5 points on the night. But the Blue Line -- Kentucky's "second starters" as coach Adolph Rupp calls them -- came through in the clutch, as Jamal Mashburn had 12 points to spur an 11-3 run that put Kentucky up for good.
"It's a good luxury to have 10 starters," Rupp joked.
#4 Duke 72, #15 Southern Cal 68. In the NIBL postseason, you survive and advance. Duke is getting ready for that mentality early.
Elton Brand's 16 points and 11 rebounds led the way as the Blue Devils (10-2) held off the Trojans (9-3), who finished non-conference play 0-3 against the Super Five and 9-0 against everyone else.
"What that tells me is that we can be a 2 or 3 seed, and that the Sweet Sixteen is good, but it also says we have work to do to compete for the big prize," coach Sam Barry said when asked about the unusual split. "We'll have time to work on our game, we'll face UCLA a couple times... I hope we can improve over the course of the season."
Duke, meanwhile, enters ACC play with two close wins after a loss to Michigan. Coach Mike Krzyzewski isn't worried, though. "We'll be ready," he said to reporters. "We've played tough teams, and we're a tough team."
DeMar DeRozan led the Trojans with 15 points.
#5 Kansas 77, #9 Notre Dame 65. Notre Dame had been overachieving throughout the non-conference season. It had to come to an end with a reality check.
Paul Pierce took over in the second half, getting a personal 8-0 run as part of his 24 point outburst as the Jayhawks (10-2) knocked off the Fighting Irish (9-3) to enter Big XII play with momentum.
With the score tied at 55, Pierce hit a three-point jumper to give Kansas the lead. A steal by JoJo White followed, and White fed Pierce for a dunk to extend the lead to five. After an Adrian Dantley miss, Pierce drove the lane and got the layup plus a foul on Bill Laimbeer, completing the three-point play to give Kansas a lead they wouldn't give back.
"It's like my man [Kevin Garnett] says, anything is possible. We feel we can win it all, man," Pierce said after the game. "If Wilt [Chamberlain] is having a bad day, I can step up, Joel [Embiid] can step up, JoJo [White] can step up... we got options!"
Austin Carr led the Irish with 15 points.
#16 Maryland 71, #17 DePaul 66. George Mikan was rested and ready to go. Unfortunately, so was Len Bias.
Bias scored 22 points to lead all scorers and outduel Mikan (20 points) as the Terrapins (9-3) defeated the Blue Demons (8-4) in the final non-conference game for both teams.
"Len is our spark plug," coach Gary Williams said after the game. "When he gets an open floor, he's hard to beat. We're glad to have him on our team."
Mikan, who played sparingly in the previous game against Rhode Island, was a monster underneath in the halfcourt set. He went 9-13 from the field (2-2 from the line) and added 14 rebounds and 5 blocks. However, Bias was able to get around Mikan on multiple occasions for dunks, and sixth man John Lucas II made a critical three to provide the final score.
"They're good," Mikan admitted. "We're going to take these lessons and prep for the Big East."
#14 Arizona 90, #7 Syracuse 53. When the week began, Syracuse was 8-1 and looked like they could compete with the two Super Five teams in the ACC. Now, questions abound.
Jason Terry and Richard Jefferson each had 25 points as the Wildcats (9-3) sent the Orange (8-4) to their third straight defeat, all against Top 25 competition -- and all against the Pac-12.
"We're not taking anyone lightly," coach Jim Boeheim insisted. "The Pac-12 is a powerful conference. We just had a bad week. We're going to be drilling extra hard in practice to prepare for the ACC season."
Syracuse used their usual 2-3 zone, which discourages going inside and dares three-point shooters to hit their shots. But Terry and Jefferson did that, leading a barrage (with help from Mike Bibby and Steve Kerr) of 15-27 shooting from long-range.
"We just didn't miss," Jefferson said, amused. "We were all dialed in. Heat checks were going in. Everything worked."
Louisville 72, #22 Florida 59. It looks like Florida's stay in the Top 25 won't be repeated.
Donovan Mitchell had 19 points and 6 assists as the Cardinals (9-3) upset the Gators (8-4) to make a statement about their place in the ACC pecking order... and perhaps the Top 25 itself.
"Oh, we definitely belong," Mitchell said when asked. "You look at how we started the year, you look at who we beat; we deserve the recognition that teams like Duke and [North] Carolina do. ACC ain't all about Tobacco Road."
Gators coach Billy Donovan was disappointed in his team's effort. "We're capable of playing better, especially when we get the looks we got today," he said. "You can't do that against teams like Kentucky and Tennessee and expect to get away with it."
Bradley Beal led the Gators with 14 points.
Houston 80, #23 Iowa 67. Rumors of Houston's demise appear to be exaggerated. Iowa, meanwhile, may not be as strong as they looked.
Hakeem Olajuwon went for 21 points, 14 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 4 steals as the Cougars (9-3) jumped out to a 20-point lead by halftime and held on to beat the Hawkeyes (8-4) in the final non-conference game for both teams.
"Now that's more like it," coach Guy Lewis said of Olajuwon's performance. "We're a dangerous team when we click on all cylinders, and Hakeem is a big cylinder. We look ready for Big XII play now."
"We dug ourselves too deep of a hole," Hawkeye forward Connie Hawkins said after the game. "We need to start better and we need to finish better."
California 83, #20 Minnesota 75. The Pac-12 hopes to get more than three bids this season. If it's going to happen, teams like California have to step up the way they did today.
Jason Kidd had 17 points and Shareef Abdur-Rahim had 11 with 6 blocks as the Golden Bears (9-3) took out the Golden Gophers (8-4) in a battle of "golden" teams in the Big 10-Pac 12 rivalry.
"I love how Jason plays," Bears coach Pete Newell said after the game. "But I'm really proud of the progress Shareef has made. Today he dominated the paint on defense, and that's how we were able to get the W."
With Cal up 4 and a minute to go, Abdur-Rahim blocked a Mychal Thompson layup attempt. The scramble went to Archie Clark, who found Kevin McHale underneath. However, Abdur-Rahim blocked the dunk attempt, and Kevin Johnson ran the ball out to get fouled and begin the march to the free throw line.
"Everyone had a good game, and we had a good game," Johnson said.
*****
#24 UNLV 70, Princeton 66. In the mid-major non-conference game of the season, it was thought that Princeton's best chance was to keep UNLV from making it a full-court game. Add some three-pointers, and they could steal a win.
That's almost what happened. But talent won out in the end.
Shawn Marion led all scorers with 17 points as the Runnin' Rebels (8-4) held off the Tigers (7-5) in a game between two of the top mid-majors in the country.
"You gotta give them a ton of credit," coach Jerry Tarkanian said after the game. "Princeton is a team that doesn't lose easily. They're going to be a tough out down the line if, no, when they make the Dance."
With both teams trying to play at their more comfortable pace -- Princeton's average possession was about nine seconds longer than UNLV's -- it was play underneath that kept the Tigers alive. Bill Bradley and John Hummer each had 17 points as Sidney Green was unable to keep up defensively. But in the final seconds, Larry Johnson and Armen Gilliam denied inbound passes, forcing Brian Taylor to put up a three-pointer. It missed, and Reggie Theus' two free throws made the final score.
"So close and yet so far," Bradley told reporters.
*****
HOW THE TOP 25 FARED

UCLA 87, 25. Illinois 74
North Carolina 95, Arkansas 64
Kentucky 67, 8. Michigan 58
Duke 72, 15. Southern Cal 68
Kansas 77, 9. Notre Dame 65
Michigan State 108, Saint Louis 58
Syracuse 53, 14. Arizona 90
Michigan 58, 3. Kentucky 67
Notre Dame 65, 5. Kansas 77
Indiana 82, N.C. State 70
Ohio State 72, Arizona State 58
Connecticut 80, Tennessee 64
Texas 75, Saint John's 74, OT
Arizona 90, 7. Syracuse 53
Southern Cal 68, 4. Duke 72
Maryland 71, 17. DePaul 66
DePaul 66, 16. Maryland 71
LSU 80, West Virginia 71
Georgetown 94, Tulsa 69
Minnesota 75, California 83
Alabama 69, Washington 68, OT
Florida 59, Louisville 72
Iowa 67, Houston 80
UNLV 70, Princeton 66
Illinois 74, 1. UCLA 87

Our valiant attempts to retake Castle Eitrivatnen have been met with savage opposition, the Vikings have taken hold of our landmark and continue to batter our defences despite our efforts to prevent this. This brings me to Fireshelf, which is in the most need of reinforcements as of now. Currently we have only less than 100,000 brave soldiers holding out against a viking and samurai onslaught, with nothing but their courage and grit.
Over in the East the vanguard has taken great strides but needs cover so they can retreat from Josei to Defensor. Our border guards at Bellua road have secured a nice position and so now they must lend any aid they can to the units in Dolo Plains or else risk the war coming to them.
in conclusion, our army in the North Western front are holding strong as advised, yet our forces are stretched too wide and must ensure the northern border is properly equipped for future operations lest the citadel be at risk of collapse!
May your swords be sharp and your shields strong.

We have a new car and would like to take it on some fun roads. We would typically do a run up the 5 and down PCH and the 101, but a pretty big section of PCH is closed until December making it troublesome.
We have seen Antelope Canyon and Monument Valley already, but I am wondering if we should still plan to head East, maybe into Utah or Colorado.
We highly value scenic drives, mountains, good food, with the higher priorities being the scenery and the quality and enjoyability of the roads (ideally fun driving roads and not just highway).

If you have the money, either through in game play or via a duplication glitch with the diamonds so you can sell for rupees, another way to farm arrows is to make your way to any of the stables (from lookout landing you have wetland stable to the east, riverside to the southeast, outskirt is southwest, new serenne is northwest and woodland is northeast), when u get there look for the merchant named Beedle (he'll have the HUGE backpack on with supplies he carries) He'll either be coming up the road towards the stable when you get there (if you don't see him coming up the road at first just do a 360 and he'll appear), sitting outside the entrance (or outside of the fence area) or inside sitting down if its raining or really late. He'll have 25 arrows to sell for 150 rupees. Once you buy them sit at the fire and change it to anytime (doesn't have to be 24 hours in game) and when you do, look for him again and he'll be restocked with another 25 arrows for 150 rupees. Works for all the items he's selling if you want to farm his insects or frogs too.

Taking a family vacation to Norway soon and was wondering if anyone knew any good places to run around in Oslo and Bergen. Preferably places that are safe in early morning and not straight up on the road next to cars. In Bergen im staying in a hotel Southwest of Store Lungegårdsvannet and in Oslo ill be around a hotel east of the Oslo town hall if that helps. Thanks in advance to anyone helping.

For example, granted a couple of these are straight fantasy, some of my favorites include:
A Clockwork Orange
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Blood Meridian
Boy's Life
Brothers Karamazov
Demon Copperhead
East of Eden
Fight Club
On the Road
Lonesome Dove
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
Robinson Crusoe
Shogun
The Alchemist
The Master and Margarita
The Metamorphosis
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Road
The Secret History
The Shadow of the Wind
The Stand
The Stranger
What am I missing? Thanks in advance. Going through a tough time and searching for a good must-read. I know there's tons of books required back in school, but looking for something different and more mature - not just the typical "classics".

"Think of this as a chance at revenge," Sweeney said.

Revenge.

What a moronically quaint idea.

This jumped up little shit had come into my home, interrupted my retirement and here he was talking to me about revenge, as if he knew the first thing about what I’d seen, what I’d been through, why I’d quit.

Looking into his eyes, I knew he didn’t understand. I knew he couldn’t.

I've been hunting vampires for most of my life. I've killed more of them than I can count. But Clementine Di Cesare was no ordinary vampire. Hell, none of the Di Cesares were ordinary vampires, but even among them Clementine was… unique. She was the one all the others quietly feared. The one who was even spoken of with reverence by the Di Cesares masters, those twin Immortals who could not be killed by any weapon of this world. Seeking revenge against her was like seeking revenge against death itself.

“Revenge?” I repeated, with a dismissive scoff.
“You’re really going to tell me that after what she put you through, you don’t want revenge?” Sweeney asked.
“If you knew what she did to me, you’d know why I don’t want revenge,” I replied.
“Really? Sorry Franklin, but I don’t buy that. Look, I get it if you’re reluctant to jump back into the fight. I do. You of all people know just how dangerous the Di Cesare’s are. Especially ‘La Morte’.”

I looked over at him as he said that name. It rolled off his tongue so irreverently. To him, it was just a name. An alias assigned to some vampire he’s only heard of stories. He didn’t utter it with the respect it deserved, and I almost couldn’t be bothered to correct him. Any words spent on this small minded glory hound were probably wasted.

“Yes, I do know.”
“Which is why I need you,” Sweeney said. He almost sounded as if he were pleading with me. “Think of this as an opportunity to set things right… to put that vampire bitch in the ground where she belongs, and save God only knows how many lives in the process!”
I sighed.
He just didn’t get it.

“Mark my words, Mr. Sweeney, if you chase after Clementine Di Cesare, you’ll end far more lives than you save. She didn’t get a name like ‘La Morte’ for nothing. She earned it. Purchased it with the blood of the tens of thousands she’s sent screaming into the maw of Hell. She is not something you chase, Sweeney.”
“She’s a vampire,” Sweeney said dismissively. “She’s another enemy to destroy.”
“That’s what George Bundy said,” I replied. “Then not too long after, he died.”
“I’m not George Bundy,” Sweeney said.
“No. You sure as hell ain’t,” I agreed, before looking the kid in the eye.

He thought he was an up and comer, climbing the ranks of the Brethren. He probably thought of himself as some sort of badass vampire hunter too, when in reality he could never have so much as dreamed of holding a candle to the likes of Bundy… or hell, any of the men who’d died in Brazil.
“You should watch your tone with me,” Sweeney warned.
“Or you’ll do what?” I asked, “You ain’t going to frighten me with vague threats, boy. I’ve walked through Hell, trying to kill the Devil. What have you done?”

Sweeney bit his lip but didn’t respond.
“There’s nothing you can say or do that will intimidate me,” I said, before lighting myself a cigarette. I stared at the road outside of my porch, old memories flooding back to me before looking over at Sweeney again. He sat in his chair beside me like a sulky child. This was the man who wanted to destroy the Di Cesare family? Pathetic.

“Exactly how much do you know about the Brazil Job?” I asked.
“I know it was a failure. Clementine Di Cesare killed most of the men the Brethren sent out… all except for you. You were the only one good enough to beat her.”
“Good enough…” I repeated with a huff, “Hardly… whatever picture you’ve got in your head of some glorified battle, throw it away. Trust me, the Brazil Job was anything but glorious. It was a two hour long trek through Hell. And I didn’t beat Di Cesare at the end of it. I survived her. They’re two different things entirely.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” Sweeney said.
“You wouldn’t, would you?” I sighed and took another drag on my cigarette.

This kid wasn’t going to leave until I made him understand… so I told him my story. I told him everything even though I knew he’d learn nothing from it.

***

I’d joined up with the Brethren Knights of St. Fontaine back in the 1980s to hunt monsters. Back then, it seemed like the best use of my skills. I’d done my tours with the army, but even after I got out, I was still looking for an enemy to fight. So naturally, once I found out that vampires were real, I set my sights on them. It seemed like the most sensible thing to do at the time.

The Brethren Knights fancied themselves the descendants of the Knights Templar, and they insisted that their God given mission was to protect mankind from the things that lurked in the shadows. I didn’t really have much love for God at the time, but if the Bretheren were the ones fighting the monsters, then I was happy to tolerate the Jesus freaks in their ranks.

It was 1988 when we first heard whispers of the Imperium. A supposed cabal of vampires, trying to get them organized. At the time, it’d seemed too crazy to be true. Vampires generally went their own way, in my experience. At most, they might have a partner but other than they they didn’t really socialize with their own kind. But supposedly someone out there had the big fucking balls to keep them in line, and whoever they were, they scared the shit out of the Brethren.

They’d started targeting high profile vampires, trying to find someone who was involved in this ‘Imperium’, hoping that maybe they might get someone to talk. And it wasn’t long until they found someone who did.

From my understanding, the vampire they captured didn’t seem to know much about who was actually running the show. But they knew who their second in command was… and that was when I first head about the Di Cesare family.

The name was familiar to some of the higher ups in the Brethren, and I’d heard some stories. Not sure which were true, but the long and short of it was that the Di Cesare’s and the Brethren shared a bloody history, and didn’t particularly like each other too much.

George Bundy explained it to me like this at one point: ‘The Di Cesare’s are an old family. Most of them used to be witches, up until their Matriarch turned them into vampires. Now they’re a whole new kind of nasty. Far as I know, the only time anyone’s actually managed to kill one was about 200 years ago. Anyone who’s tried since has ended up dead, so most folks don’t even bother anymore.’

I guess it shouldn’t have been surprising they’d be involved in the Imperium, but the mere mention of their name ruffled some feathers higher up on the chain of command, and eventually they put out a kill order on them. Most of the Di Cesare’s were generally pretty hard to track down, but the top brass had a pretty good line on their matriarch, Bianca Di Cesare. Supposedly, she’d been spotted near the family’s private estate in Brazil and rumor had it that most of her daughters were there too.

Normally, the brass wouldn’t have sanctioned any kind of attack on them. The Di Cesare’s were already considered off limits, and attacking them at their private estate was considered damn near impossible. The estate was located in a small mining town outside of Manaus called Refugio de Julia, or just Julia for short. The town was fairly remote, being only accessible from a few backroads and most folks tended to avoid it, claiming they’d had various strange encounters in the area. Their accounts described unsettling pale figures with dark hair and large green eyes working in the mines, although some of the more disturbing stories we heard involved sightings of other creatures in the jungle surrounding the town. Massive spiders with humanoid faces, tending rotting corpses filled with stinging bees, giant howling beasts who tore through the forest, hunting prey, and beautiful women who would appear in the nearby towns, betwitching men into coming away with them only to reveal themselves as monsters who fed on the blood of their victims. Some had even claimed the Di Cesares themselves were such beasts… although those claims weren’t taken quite as seriously.

A skeptic might say the stories that surrounded Julia seemed like little more than just local superstition… but the Brethren had been dealing with the supernatural for long enough to recognize when something was probably real, and when it was probably fake and they knew damn well that most of the stories about Julia were probably true. None of them had ever dared set foot in Julia to find out for sure, since doing so would probably be suicide, but the theory was that the Di Cesares had created Julia as something of a refuge for other creatures. Other vampires, werewolves, arachne, karah and all sorts of other hellspawn. They offered them a home and safety in exchange for their labor in the mines. Hell, the name of the town more or less spelled it out.

Refugio de Julia

Julia’s Haven.

Julia had been the name of the only member of the Di Cesare family that the Brethren had ever killed, so I guess it was only fitting they named the town after her.

I honestly think using other creatures like them as a workforce was a bit inspired… since it made Julia damn near impenetrable. Reaching their estate at the far side of the town would have been impossible without being noticed by every creature of hell living in that town, and odds are they’d tear anyone apart long before they even reached the gates of the Di Cesare estate. And if one had the bright idea to approach the estate from another angle, they’d be trudging through miles and miles of rainforest to do so, only end up face to face with a massive stone wall that kept the rainforest out.

In effect - the Di Cesare estate was a fortress. Getting in would be no easy feat, to say nothing of confronting the vampires within. But with the fear of the Imperium gnawing at the back of their minds, the Brethren had finally set their minds to trying.

George Bundy had been the one in charge of planning the operation out.

I’d known Bundy before I’d joined up with the Brethren. Hell, Bundy was the whole reason I’d joined the Brethren. He’d been my CO a number of years back, and he’d earned his reputation as a hardass just about ten or twenty times over. Bundy was a gruff looking man with a bushy moustache and intense eyes. During the years I knew him, I don’t believe I ever once saw him so much as crack a smile. He only ever seemed to speak when he felt there was something he needed to say. Otherwise, he was usually dead silent.

He was somewhere in his late fifties back in 88. By all rights, he ought to have retired years ago. But he refused.
“I’m a soldier,” He said, when I asked him about it once. “That’s all I am. I don’t know what else to be.”

Bundy’s initial plan had been to hit the Di Cesare estate from the air. Come in fast and loud with a couple of helicopters and see how those vampires stood up to some good old American flak. The idea got shot down pretty quickly, so to speak. Apperantly, most if not all of the Di Cesares had cursed their own bodies, causing whatever wound one inflicted on them to appear on whoever it was who had wounded them. Going in guns blazing would have ended in a bloodbath… and not for them. There were also some concerns about drawing attention from Julia. With no conclusive data on just what they had living in that town, there was no guarantee we’d be safe in the air. A few eyewitnesses had described seeing giant nests in some of the trees in the jungle, supposedly consistent with the nests made by harpies.

Flying in guns blazing was out. So Bundy went back to the drawing board and what he came back with… well, it was ballsy, but it almost seemed like it just might work. During his reconnisance of the Di Cesare’s estate, he’d noticed a large but shallow tributary flowing into the amazon river that led right through the Di Cesare’s estate. Along the tributary was an abandoned water mill, that connected to the Di Cesare estate.

He’d suggested using the water mill to gain entry to the grounds, and from there, move on the Di Cesare’s. That plan had been approved, and Bundy had been allowed to handpick his team for the operation. He’d chosen fifteen men, all of them ex military, most of them having served under him before.

He’d told us we would be dividing into three teams of five men each. We would leave Manaus by boat, and land at three different areas near the tributary before making our way to the mill on foot, where we would regroup, before moving on the Di Cesares. The reason for the division was to ensure that if any of our teams ran into trouble upon making ground, the entire operation wouldn’t be compromised.

Team 1, led by Bundy himself would depart first and land to the west of the tributary. Team 2, led by a man named Ferdinand Hernandez would make land about fifteen minutes later near the mouth of the tributary and Team 3, to be led by me would land fifteen minutes later to the east.

On the day of the operation, I sat in my boat, watching as the other two left. It was twilight when we set out, and I remember that as my team and I carried out our final checks on our equipment, the only thing I felt was a familiar anticipation.

I’d hesitate to call it fear. Fear is what came later. Anticipation is the better word. I knew we could be walking into a tough situation… but I trusted Bundy. I trusted he’d run a smooth op. God knew, he’d done it a thousand times before.

The team assigned to me wasn’t anything particularly special. They were competent enough, but none of them would’ve been my first choices. Jack McMullen, for instance, who was about the same age as I was at the time. We’d both served under Bundy before, although while I respected Bundy, Jack was wholly devoted to him. I swear, if the man had told him to stuff a live grenade up his ass, Jack would’ve done it without a moments hesitation. I dunno if Jack simply saw him as the father he’d never had or what, but he damn near worshipped Bundy.

I can’t quite say the same for the other guys we had with us, though. One of them, some greenhorn by the name of Pearce Wilson struck me as an airheaded pretty boy who’d never actually had his boots on the ground before, while the other one, Scott Barber had left a bad taste in my mouth last time we’d worked together. Barber was capable… but he was violent. This was a kid with a hell of a chip on his shoulder, and it looked a hell of a lot like that Confederate flag patch he wore on his jacket. He wanted an excuse to shoot something, and I don’t think he cared what. Under most circumstances I’m not sure I would’ve fully trusted him with a gun.

The last one though, Joseph Feng… him I trusted. Feng was the one I knew the least about, and he didn’t seem much for conversation. But he handled himself competently enough and seemed to know when to sit down and shut up.

When Team 2’s boat was far enough away, we got the radio signal to follow. Barber was the one steering the boat, so I gave him the order to cast off and we ventured out into the twilight, unaware of just what was waiting for us out there.

***

We landed in our designated area fifteen minutes after Team 2 confirmed they’d touched down at theirs. Our landing was fairly uneventful. Feng, Barber, and I secured the boat before we radio’d Bundy to let him know we were in position. After that, it was just a matter of making it to the tributary.

As we ventured into the jungle, the world around us was quiet. There was wind, the whisper of the river behind us, and the sounds of animals. But little else. The river fell away behind us as we moved in single file toward the tributary, maintaining radio silence as we did.

It was about a half hour before we heard the gunshot.

Just one, echoing through the twilight. But it was enough to give us pause.

“The fuck was that?” I heard Barber ask. Immediately, the kid was on high alert, with his gun raised as if he were expecting every monster in Julia to come charging at us from all angles.
I just listened, waiting to hear if there was anything else. I half expected my radio to come to life, but it didn’t.
“Team 1, status?” I asked.
The radio crackled with static, but there was no response.

I tried it again, but still with no success. The radio was working, that much I was sure of. Something had to be blocking the signal.
“What’s going on?” Feng asked.
“Dunno,” I replied. “Comms are down.”
“Down?” Wilson asked, “So we’re flying blind out here, then?”
“More or less,” I replied.
“What do we do? Do we go back… if the comms are down…”
“Just because something’s jamming our signal doesn’t mean we’re made,” I said. “Relax. We keep moving for now. You keep your eyes wide open, and your head on a swivel. We’ll make it to the tributary and see if we can’t meet up with the other teams.”
I could tell Wilson wasn’t a fan of my answer, but I didn’t much care. We had a job to do, and I aimed to do it.

I pressed on without a further word and the others followed. Up ahead, I could hear the sound of running water and picked up the pace. I figured the tributary had to be close… and I was right.

I emerged from the brush into the stream, only to pause when I saw what was waiting for us in the water.

In the dying sunlight, it was impossible to mistake the bodies sprawled out on the rocks as anything else… and all I needed to do was look at their uniforms to know they were our people.
“Jesus…” I heard Wilson say under his breath. He froze up, lingering by the bank as I cautiously approached one of the bodies.

It belonged to a somewhat heavyset man with a thin mustache who I recognized as Hernandez. His eyes were still open, although lifeless and staring in different directions, and there was a clean hole in his forehead where a bullet had ended his life. The gunshot we’d heard earlier had likely been the sound of his death.

Looking at the bodies around him, I knew they had to be the rest of Team 2… although it was a little harder pinning down their cause of death. Some sort of bladed weapon, perhaps, judging by the state of them. I realized the odds were that they walked into some sort of ambush.
“What about Bundy and Team 1?” Jack asked, “Any sign of them?”
“No,” I said. “These bodies are all from Team 2… Bundy could still be ahead of us.”
“Then we need to keep going!”

Jack turned, heading up the stream and Barber was right behind him. Feng paused for a moment, thinking this over before following. Only Wilson remained.
“How do we know we’re not walking into a trap?” He asked.
“We’ll deal with that when we get to it,” I said before moving to follow the others.
“With all due respect, Sarge… that doesn’t sound like the best course of action!” Wilson argued, finally following me. “It sounds just like a good way to get killed!”
“Yeah?” I asked, “I’m gonna tell you an ugly truth, kid. That’s the job. Make your peace with it, and it’ll go a lot easier.”

Wilson didn’t like that answer either and trailed off behind me, watching as I continued upstream. For a moment, I half expected him to go back to the boat… but no. I dunno if he found his balls or just didn’t want to get left behind, but he started to follow us again.

I kept trying to raise Team 1 on the radio while we walked, although I still had no luck. The light above us slowly faded into darkness as we trudged through the water in silence, guns sitting comfortably in our hands and mosquitos biting at our necks.

It wasn’t until we lost Feng that I heard anybody so much as make a sound, and when we lost Feng… it happened almost instantaneously. One minute, he was at the head of the group, walking just ahead of Jack and I. The next, he was gone, only barely having the time to let out a scream as he fell into the river ahead of us.

The rest of us paused. Jack seemed to freeze and I pushed past him, calling out for Feng as I did. As punishment for my compassion, I almost went down after him. I only barely stopped myself from stepping on the slippery rocks that had helped send him to his demise.

I could see Feng’s body in the water, and I could see the blood pouring out of him. He twitched a few times, but I knew he was dead. The sharpened wooden spikes jutting out of him confirmed as much.
“What the hell…” Jack said under his breath, staring at Feng’s corpse in disbelief. “That’s a fucking spike trap!”

Yeah.

It was indeed a fucking spike trap.

I could see other spikes jutting out of the water ahead of us, just past a small dam of rocks that were just slippery enough to make it difficult to stop yourself from falling. Some of those spikes had other bodies on them… likely members of Team 1. I only counted two, although that still didn’t exactly bode well.

“They put a fucking spike trap in the goddamn stream…” Jack said, “Who the hell does that?”
“Somebody who’s expecting us to use the stream,” I replied.
“So they know we’re coming?” Barber asked.
“Clearly…” I replied. “And they’ve got a good idea on what our route is too.”

“Yeah, no shit!” Barber snapped. “Christ… let’s get the fuck out of here. There’s probably more fucking traps upstream!”
“Bundy’s orders were clear!” Jack argued.
“Bundy’s probably dead by now!” Barber replied, before looking at me. “Sarge, come on. You have to know this is suicide!”
“Suicide was part of the job description, was it not?” I asked.
“The job is to kill those fucking vampires, not to die in the goddamn process! We need to get out of the stream and into the woods!”

“Judging by the fate Team 2 met, I’m not sure the forest is someplace we want to be right now,” I replied.
“Excuse me?” Barber asked, “What the hell are you talking about, Sarge?”
“Five men dead, but only one gunshot. How did the rest die?”

Barber didn’t seem to be able to answer that.
“By now… yes. It’s clear we’ve walked into a trap. And yes, I understand that it makes sense to try and leave that trap… but I don’t know if we’ll be safer in the jungle. Something jumped Team 2. Cut them apart, and then shot Hernandez as a warning. They didn’t have to shoot him. They did it so we’d hear.”
“Your point being?” Barber asked.
“I don’t think this is just a trap, Barber. It’s a game. Stop playing, and you might just end up like our friends downstream.”
“A game?” Wilson asked, “Sarge, you can’t be serious!”

“From where I’m standing, we have a better chance of surviving in the stream,” I said. “Look, we’re at least halfway to the rendezvous point, and there have to be at least two members of Team 1 left. The safest thing to do right now is to follow them.”
“You’re off your fucking rocker, Sarge,” Barber spat, locking his eyes with mine. For a moment, I thought the boy was going to try and fight me. But no. He was wise enough to stand down.
“If you wanna get yourself killed, go right the fuck ahead. Just leave me out of it! Wilson, come on,” Barber said before trudging over to the edge of the stream. Wilson didn’t even hesitate, just looking back at Jack and I quietly before he disappeared into the forest with Barber.

“You’re not gonna stop them?” Jack asked.
“No,” I replied. “God willing, there’s a chance that pigheaded asshole is right… dunno how much of a chance, but a chance.”
“Then how come we’re not following him?” Jack asked.
“There’s also a chance he’s wrong.”
I turned, before making my way around the spike trap.
“Keep a slower pace,” I said. “Watch for traps.”

Jack hesitated for a moment, but he followed me without any further questions and we walked in silence for a little longer.

We heard nothing from the trees. Nothing that told us about the fate of Barber and Wilson. I wasn’t sure if that was good news or not.

In fact, I don’t think we heard a thing until about a half hour later, when we heard the explosion.

It came out of almost nowhere, but ahead of us I could see a flash of light and hear the screams of men. On instinct, I found myself picking up the pace and could hear Jack behind me. In the low light, I saw a shape float past me in the stream. It took me a moment to realize that it was a severed human arm.

In the water ahead of us, I could see a figure clinging to one of the rocks and trying to pick himself up. I recognized him as George Bundy.

Jack was at his side almost immediately, trying to help the old man to his feet.
“Sir! Are you alright?”
Bundy just wheezed, before his legs gave out from under him. I helped Jack drag him to the shore so he could sit and rest for a moment.
“What the hell was that?” I asked, looking back at the stream.
“Grenade trap… I think…” Bundy panted, “Fucking tripwire… Popkov tripped it, I think…”

Popkov… odds are he was one of the two mangled corpses lying in the river a few feet away from us. It seemed they’d taken the brunt of the explosion, although Bundy still had some shrapnel in his arm that Jack was tending to.
“Christ… whole fucking ops gone to shit…” Bundy spat. “Team 2 got taken out just about as soon as they landed. Someone killed them and dumped them in the goddamn river. Lost half my boys to the fucking spike trap and half to this…”

He looked up at us, before spitting onto the ground.
“Guess you two haven’t done much better.”
“Hard to say,” I replied. “Two of ours took off into the woods, trying to avoid the traps.”
“Then they’re dead,” Bundy replied. “I’ve seen her watching us… always just up ahead, always from a distance… she’s seeing how far we’ll go. How much we’ll take…”
“She?” I asked.
“La Morte. Should’ve figured she’d be the one to greet us.”
“La Morte?” I asked.

“It’s Italian. Supposedly, she earned that name around the time the Di Cesares fled Venice. It’s funny, the Brethren like to act like the Di Cesares leaving Venice was some big victory of theirs, since before they did, they finally killed one of them… hard to call it a victory though, considering how many corpses they made before they fled. And most of them came from La Morte…”
Bundy winced in pain as Jack bandaged his arm before he continued talking.

“See… when the Di Cesare’s left Venice, one of them stayed behind. Clementine, the Scorpio sister. Guess she was unwilling to leave the fight unfinished… and according to the stories, the death toll she personally amassed in the years after the Di Cesare’s left Venice make the bodies they claimed during the Venetian Massacre a hundred and fifty years prior look like a pittance. The Brethren still occupying the city started to call her La Morte. Death. Cuz wherever she went, death followed in her wake… and it seems we’ve walked right into her open arms, haven’t we, boys?”

“You’re sure it’s her?” I asked.
“She’s a Di Cesare… and the shit we’ve seen out here… I don’t see any other Di Cesare setting those traps. It’s her. I’m sure of it. She’s watching us. Seeing how far we’ll go. Seeing if we’ll turn tail…”
“Should we?” Jack asked, and Bundy finally seemed to acknowledge him.
“Excuse me?” He asked.
“Should we? Look, sir… I’d follow you into the mouth of Hell, but right now, we’re down from fifteen men to three. Can’t say I’m optimistic about our chances right now. If this woman is half as bad as you’re saying she is, maybe it’s time we took a step back!”

Jack looked at me, hoping I might back him up, but I remained silent.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Bundy asked.
“What I’m hearing here, is that as of right now, the vampire out there could kill us at any time. She hasn’t. Far as I’m concerned, that’s mercy. Maybe we should be taking it while it’s offered.”
Bundy stared at him, before chuckling. I think it was the first time I’d ever seen him laugh.

“Just walk away, then?” He asked.
“Walk away, and come back better prepared!” Jack corrected.
“Walk away,” Bundy said again. “We walk away now, and there won’t be a chance to come back better prepared. We get one shot at this. One. Failure is not an option. We go in there and we kill them or we die. End of discussion.”
“And how exactly are we even supposed to kill them?” Jack asked, “That curse they have… bullets aren’t gonna do shit, sir!”
“Yours won’t, mine will…”
Bundy pulled his pistol from his holster. I noticed some sort of pattern crudely engraved on it.

“I’ve been doing some research… studied the curse they put on themselves… and I think I’ve found a way to break it. Not sure if it’ll work yet… but we get one chance to test it.”
Jack stared at the gun, then back at Bundy.
“Sir… do you hear yourself?” He asked quietly, “You can’t be serious… right now, even with that gun we don’t stand a chance in he-”

The gunshot echoed through the forest and made me jump. Jack’s voice died in his throat as he hit the ground.

Bundy stared at him for a moment, before huffing and holstering his pistol again. He draped his coat over his shoulders, before looking over at me.
“No room for failure, Frank,” He said calmly.
I didn’t know what to say to that. I stared down at Jack’s body, my mouth hanging open slightly. When I looked back at Bundy, he was already back in the stream.

There was a tense silence between Bundy and I as I followed him along the final stretch of the tributary. He trudged on ahead, covered in sweat and straining with every step, but I could sense the quiet determination he had to see this through. Looking at him, you could’ve told me that George Bundy could wipe out the Di Cesare’s all by himself and I would have believed it in a second.

The night around us was full of sound, and each one drew my attention. I watched the forest, expecting to see some sign of La Morte watching us. But I saw nothing, except for what she wanted me to see.
“Mill’s just up ahead,” I heard Bundy say as we pressed on, although I noticed his steps faltering as he seemed to notice something in the trees above us. I stopped behind him, looking up before seeing what he saw, and when I saw it I felt my stomach turn.

I’d seen death before.
But what Di Cesare had left out for us… that was something else.
Pearce Wilson and Scott Barber weren’t dead.
But if they could have spoke, I’ve got no doubt they would have begged us to kill them. Wilsons pretty face was covered in blood and his pouty lips were parted as more trickled out of him. His curly blond hair was matted and I could see crimson there. Tree branches portruded from his ribs, while the loops of his entrails dangled out of his opened stomach. And Barber was in just about the same state, only he seemed to at least have the ability to turn his head to look at us.

I think he might have tried to speak, but the only sound he seemed to be able to make was a pained whimper.
“Jesus Christ…” I said softly.
“He had nothing to do with this,” Bundy replied. He took one last look at the two dying men hanging from the trees, before moving on.
“We should put them out of their misery, sir,” I said.

Bundy paused, before looking back at me.
“Don’t waste the ammo, Frank,” He replied. “They’re already dead.”
“Not yet they’re not!”
“Give them time. They chose to go into the woods. They can live with the consequences… for however long that lasts.”

With that, he left them. If I were a more compassionate man, I would have put them out of their misery. But no. Bundy moved on and so did I.

He approached the water mill, before examining it. It was an old building, made of stone that had long since been overgrown by moss, and sat right on the wall that separated the Di Cesares estate from the amazon. It hardly looked secure, even if the only entrance hadn’t just been an old wooden door secured with a padlock, finding a way in wouldn’t have been difficult. And it didn’t take much for Bundy to break through that door. All he needed was a couple of well placed kicks and it swung right open.

Drawing his gun, Bundy strode inside and I followed him.
“The Di Cesare’s will be in the main house,” He said. “We should find a way in through the back, try and catch them off guard. Main target should be the matriarch, Bianca. Her we should prioritize keeping alive… the rest are expendable.”

“Much as you are, I’m sure.” A voice called from deeper in the mill, and both Bundy and I froze.
I noticed movement on the floor above us, and through the shadows, I saw a tall woman watching us. She was dressed all in black, with blond hair tied back in a ponytail and the intense eyes of a soldier.

This had to be Clementine Di Cesare.

Bundy aimed his pistol at her, although she only barely seemed to notice.
“Only two of you left… I’m not sure the odds are in your favor,” The woman said. Her voice was low, calm and quiet.
“Only one way to find out,” Bundy growled.
“And only one way to walk out of this place alive,” Di Cesare countered. “You can put the gun down, turn and walk away. I won’t stop you. There’s no shame in living.”

“All the bodies you’ve left in your wake… that’s rich,” Bundy said.
“I don’t relish what I’ve done. I simply don’t know how to do anything else,” She replied. “Think about this, Bundy. Over my lifetime, there have been countless thousands who have come to kill me. All of them are dead, but I am not. Even if you could kill me… you could not kill my sisters. Not all of them. Not before they came for you.”
“Just you, would be enough…” Bundy said, before pulling the trigger.

I knew he’d hit her. I knew the bullet pierced her shoulder. But that woman… she didn’t even flinch. She simply dove out of the way before he could shoot again, taking cover and avoiding his next shot.
“Frank, upstairs!” Bundy snapped, “Flush her out!”
I went, trudging up the old wooden steps with my rifle drawn. Only to see Di Cesare vaulting over the railing and back down to the ground floor as soon as I made it up there.

Bundy shot at her again, only to miss for a second time. I saw Di Cesare’s arm move, and heard him cry out in pain. In the low light, I could see a dagger protruding from his shoulder. He stumbled back a step, leaving himself open for only a split second.

That second was all it took for Di Cesare to raise her own gun and fire just one shot.

George Bundy hit the ground without so much as a final scream. There was just a simple hole in his skull where she had shot him.

I felt my heart start to race faster. My eyes settled on Bundy’s gun, and I ran for the railing, vaulting it and dropping to the ground below with a thud. Di Cesare shot at me, and I felt the bullet tear through my leg. I reached out for the fallen gun and grabbed it before turning it on Di Cesare, only to find myself staring down the barrel of her own pistol. My finger rested on the trigger, but I didn’t have the guts to pull it.

"Kill me, and you will not see the sun tomorrow." She said, her voice still cold and calm.
“Killing you is part of the job…” I replied, but my finger still couldn’t squeeze the trigger.
“And is it worth your life?” Di Cesare asked. “You fail your mission either way.”
“And die with some goddamn honor…”
“There’s no such thing as honor. There is alive and there is dead. Choose.”

I knew what I was supposed to choose.

But my hands were shaking, as I stared into the face of death. My finger couldn’t squeeze the trigger.

The gun collapsed to the floor and Di Cesare kicked it away from me, before huffing and lowering her gun.
“Do not return,” She said softly. “Or next time, I will unleash a hell upon you that will make you beg for simple traps.”

She picked Bundy’s gun up off the ground, and then she was gone. After I finally picked myself up off the ground, I was gone too.

As I walked back along the stream… I passed the corpses of the men we’d left behind. Barber and Wilson, Jack, Feng, Hernandez, and his team. The flies were already feasting on them. Animals had already torn at them. And as I looked down at their cold corpses, I knew I had made the right choice.

I filed my report with the Brethren. Told them that Di Cesare had wiped us out, and a few months later I quietly retired. I never looked back.

***

“You walked away from her?” Sweeney asked in disbelief, “You had her dead to rights and you walked away from her?”
“I chose to live,” I replied. “Can’t say I regret the decision either. Because of the choice I made, I met my wife and had my kids. I’ve lived the life I had because I chose not to throw it away on some vampire.”

Sweeney just shook his head.
“You could have gotten the first confirmed kill on a Di Cesare in two centuries, and you threw it away you fucking coward! I could execute you for that!” I noticed his hand hovering over the gun on his hip.
“You could.” I replied, before quietly unholstering the pistol I kept at my side. I aimed it at Sweeney’s head.

He stared at me like a slack jawed idiot.
“Would you like to give it a try?”
“W-what…?”
“Would you like to give it a try, Mr. Sweeney? Or would you like to see the sun tomorrow?”
He stared down the barrel of my gun, and I already knew what his choice would be.

Sweeney took a step back. I saw his hand move away from his holster, and I lowered the gun with a huff.
“Thought so,” I said.
Mr. Sweeney left me without another word.
I knew he would not return.

[claim info at the bottom]
From Chronopædia, the chronicler's encylopædia

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Tirruk-Ennakum (City)

Tirruk-Ennakum is a dual archeological site, located in the southwest governorate of Hypetlia.^{^[1]} It consists of two settlements within view of each other in the upper Khabur valley around a series of springs which are its main source of water. The earliest evidence of settlement in the region dates back to the Neolithic, circa 7000 BVE.^{^[2]} The oldest continuously settled city of t he two is Ennakum, which dates back to the proto-Chaerean culture circa 5000 BVE. Tirruk was continuously settled from 4200 BVE during Chaerean A.^{^[3]} ^{^[4]}

>Location Debate before Discovery

>Archeological Discovery

V History

Early period and Tirruk I

Tirruk can be clearly divided into four layers, while Ennakum changes more gradually and is thus divided into an early, middle and late period. Tirruk I dates to the chalcolithic and shows signs of participation in Chaerean culture with its characteristic two-floored houses, though most second floors were deliberately collapsed and covered by dirt around 3800 BVE by the people that built Tirruk II on top. Tirruk I practiced cultivation of wheat and barley, as well as sheep herding, evidence of which was well preserved because of the sudden burial of the old site.
The houses of Tirruk I include animal bones, seeds, pottery, copper tools, and human skeletons, a few of which show signs of serious fracturing close before death.^{^[5]} Houses are built from stone and usually have one main room and multiple rooms to the side arranged so that the house is overall circular or oval. The secondary rooms are typically small, averaging about 4 to 5 meters across and are usually square or slightly elongated. Inside some of the main rooms archeologists have discovered stelae with inscriptions in the still undeciphered Tirruk script and carvings of figures doing an unclear activity, suggested to be either hunting, dancing, or some kind of ceremonial pose.^{^[6]} Some archeologists report finding gold treasures along with these stelae, but these findings have been questioned as possible tax evasion.^{^[7]} ^{^[8]} ^{^[9]}
Early Ennakum consists of circular dwellings built with mud brick around a bamboo frame. This period is characterized by agriculture and sheep herding, copper working and an apparent cult revolving around figurines of people with congenital malformations, as evidenced by missing limbs, malformed spines and skulls in the figurines. The people of this period seem to not have practiced grave burials, and so we lack any special burials of unique individuals that usually tells us more about their relation to disability. ^{^[10]} ^{^[11]} Some experts claim the figurines refer to an extra-dimensional visiting race that simply wasn’t rendered correctly in our plane. ^{^[citation} ^{^needed]}

Middle period and Tirruk II and III

Early and middle Ennakum are distinguished by the change from copper working to bronze working and the gradual disappearance of Chaerean pottery and the figurine cult, though the site lacks evidence of any sudden change in inhabitants contemporaneously with the end of Tirruk I.^{^[12]} Much speculation exists about the relation between the two settlements at this point in time, whether the people of Ennakum were the ones to bury Tirruk I or not, whether it was done by invaders that for an unclear reason left Ennakum alone, or whether the people of Tirruk I ritually destroyed their own city for the sake of spiritual renewal. Proponents of that last option refer to a recent find of a bronze sword inscribed with a script that resembles the Tirruk script, suggesting a stronger continuity between Tirruk I and II than previously thought.^{^[13]} ^{^[14]}
Much information about Tirruk II and III was lost due to improper excavation (dynamite). We know it was contemporaneous with middle Ennakum and that it similarly practiced bronze working. Its houses were similar to the mud brick circular dwellings of Ennakum, though packed closer together and on average smaller. Parts of a city wall have been recovered, though the north and east sections were destroyed by initial excavations. Tirruk II was destroyed by a fire around 3200 BVE. Tirruk III shows clear cultural continuity with its predecessor.
Middle Ennakum has the site’s first examples of monumental architecture. A temple was uncovered in the center of the city on a low terrace of rammed earth. The structure, initially erroneously named ‘the ziggurat of Ennakum’ despite it not being a ziggurat, has a square base with gates on three sides and stairs to the roof on the fourth.^{^[15]} There is an offering table in the center of the building.^{^[16]}
The first series of Tirruk-Ennakum earthworks date from this period (ca. 2800 BVE) and mark the change from middle to the late period. While first thought to be symbolic geoglyphs, further excavation has shown that they acted as the base for a defensive stone wall. Most of the stone was later reused for construction of temples in cities further down the Khabur river, and only a few of the bricks were left in their original location.^{^[17]}

Late period and Tirruk IV

Tirruk III experienced a sudden drop in population and many of its houses were dismantled ca. 2700 BVE. Tirruk IV was rebuilt as a mirror to Ennakum, including a central temple and earthworks around the settlement.^{^[18]} The city was first described in the historiography as lacking streets or footpaths, similar to Çatalhöyük, but the city also lacks any roof access and instead seems to be one large interconnected house.^{^[19]}
This led to a series of theories about the inhabitants having different relations to privacy or even a lack of personal or family property, but recent field work came to a new discovery: some of the rooms were regularly swept clean, while others were not. The rooms that were swept clean had tiled floors, while the second type of rooms either had no floor or multiple floors, with debris stuffed under the floorboards. Mapping these two types of rooms showed that the second type were connected together in lines waving inbetween the other rooms. From this arose the consensus that the second type of rooms acted as public transitional rooms, which is why they weren’t swept and accumulated debris.^{^[20]}
The earthworks were expanded ca. 2600 BVE in both cities and again in ca. 2475 BVE according to the records of the temple of Ennakum, which was also expanded around this time.^{^[21]} The fourth and final expansion of the earthworks wrapped around both cities and suggests very wide urban sprawl.^{^[22]} ^{^[23]} Tempes, houses, workshops and markets were built along the roads between the two cities.^{^[24]} Incidental discoveries during plowing and construction in the area have unveiled a rich trove of artifacts, a selection of which is on display in the Hypetlia national museum.^{^[25]}
The entire Tirruk-Ennakum site was burnt down in 2___ BVE. The cause of this event is still unclear.

>List of Rulers

>Tirruk-Ennakum in Legend

>Gallery

>Sources

>See Also

Claim map
In-game Tirruk-Ennakum corresponds to the late period, around 2600 BVE. It's a city state on the Khabur river that gained independence from the greater empires around it as they weakened because of the collapse.
Iron age (I think), Key techs: Writing, Spoked Wheel

"Think of this as a chance at revenge," Sweeney said.

Revenge.

What a moronically quaint idea.

This jumped up little shit had come into my home, interrupted my retirement and here he was talking to me about revenge, as if he knew the first thing about what I’d seen, what I’d been through, why I’d quit.

Looking into his eyes, I knew he didn’t understand. I knew he couldn’t.

I've been hunting vampires for most of my life. I've killed more of them than I can count. But Clementine Di Cesare was no ordinary vampire. Hell, none of the Di Cesares were ordinary vampires, but even among them Clementine was… unique. She was the one all the others quietly feared. The one who was even spoken of with reverence by the Di Cesares masters, those twin Immortals who could not be killed by any weapon of this world. Seeking revenge against her was like seeking revenge against death itself.

“Revenge?” I repeated, with a dismissive scoff.
“You’re really going to tell me that after what she put you through, you don’t want revenge?” Sweeney asked.
“If you knew what she did to me, you’d know why I don’t want revenge,” I replied.
“Really? Sorry Franklin, but I don’t buy that. Look, I get it if you’re reluctant to jump back into the fight. I do. You of all people know just how dangerous the Di Cesare’s are. Especially ‘La Morte’.”

I looked over at him as he said that name. It rolled off his tongue so irreverently. To him, it was just a name. An alias assigned to some vampire he’s only heard of stories. He didn’t utter it with the respect it deserved, and I almost couldn’t be bothered to correct him. Any words spent on this small minded glory hound were probably wasted.

“Yes, I do know.”
“Which is why I need you,” Sweeney said. He almost sounded as if he were pleading with me. “Think of this as an opportunity to set things right… to put that vampire bitch in the ground where she belongs, and save God only knows how many lives in the process!”
I sighed.
He just didn’t get it.

“Mark my words, Mr. Sweeney, if you chase after Clementine Di Cesare, you’ll end far more lives than you save. She didn’t get a name like ‘La Morte’ for nothing. She earned it. Purchased it with the blood of the tens of thousands she’s sent screaming into the maw of Hell. She is not something you chase, Sweeney.”
“She’s a vampire,” Sweeney said dismissively. “She’s another enemy to destroy.”
“That’s what George Bundy said,” I replied. “Then not too long after, he died.”
“I’m not George Bundy,” Sweeney said.
“No. You sure as hell ain’t,” I agreed, before looking the kid in the eye.

He thought he was an up and comer, climbing the ranks of the Brethren. He probably thought of himself as some sort of badass vampire hunter too, when in reality he could never have so much as dreamed of holding a candle to the likes of Bundy… or hell, any of the men who’d died in Brazil.
“You should watch your tone with me,” Sweeney warned.
“Or you’ll do what?” I asked, “You ain’t going to frighten me with vague threats, boy. I’ve walked through Hell, trying to kill the Devil. What have you done?”

Sweeney bit his lip but didn’t respond.
“There’s nothing you can say or do that will intimidate me,” I said, before lighting myself a cigarette. I stared at the road outside of my porch, old memories flooding back to me before looking over at Sweeney again. He sat in his chair beside me like a sulky child. This was the man who wanted to destroy the Di Cesare family? Pathetic.

“Exactly how much do you know about the Brazil Job?” I asked.
“I know it was a failure. Clementine Di Cesare killed most of the men the Brethren sent out… all except for you. You were the only one good enough to beat her.”
“Good enough…” I repeated with a huff, “Hardly… whatever picture you’ve got in your head of some glorified battle, throw it away. Trust me, the Brazil Job was anything but glorious. It was a two hour long trek through Hell. And I didn’t beat Di Cesare at the end of it. I survived her. They’re two different things entirely.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” Sweeney said.
“You wouldn’t, would you?” I sighed and took another drag on my cigarette.

This kid wasn’t going to leave until I made him understand… so I told him my story. I told him everything even though I knew he’d learn nothing from it.

***

I’d joined up with the Brethren Knights of St. Fontaine back in the 1980s to hunt monsters. Back then, it seemed like the best use of my skills. I’d done my tours with the army, but even after I got out, I was still looking for an enemy to fight. So naturally, once I found out that vampires were real, I set my sights on them. It seemed like the most sensible thing to do at the time.

The Brethren Knights fancied themselves the descendants of the Knights Templar, and they insisted that their God given mission was to protect mankind from the things that lurked in the shadows. I didn’t really have much love for God at the time, but if the Bretheren were the ones fighting the monsters, then I was happy to tolerate the Jesus freaks in their ranks.

It was 1988 when we first heard whispers of the Imperium. A supposed cabal of vampires, trying to get them organized. At the time, it’d seemed too crazy to be true. Vampires generally went their own way, in my experience. At most, they might have a partner but other than they they didn’t really socialize with their own kind. But supposedly someone out there had the big fucking balls to keep them in line, and whoever they were, they scared the shit out of the Brethren.

They’d started targeting high profile vampires, trying to find someone who was involved in this ‘Imperium’, hoping that maybe they might get someone to talk. And it wasn’t long until they found someone who did.

From my understanding, the vampire they captured didn’t seem to know much about who was actually running the show. But they knew who their second in command was… and that was when I first head about the Di Cesare family.

The name was familiar to some of the higher ups in the Brethren, and I’d heard some stories. Not sure which were true, but the long and short of it was that the Di Cesare’s and the Brethren shared a bloody history, and didn’t particularly like each other too much.

George Bundy explained it to me like this at one point: ‘The Di Cesare’s are an old family. Most of them used to be witches, up until their Matriarch turned them into vampires. Now they’re a whole new kind of nasty. Far as I know, the only time anyone’s actually managed to kill one was about 200 years ago. Anyone who’s tried since has ended up dead, so most folks don’t even bother anymore.’

I guess it shouldn’t have been surprising they’d be involved in the Imperium, but the mere mention of their name ruffled some feathers higher up on the chain of command, and eventually they put out a kill order on them. Most of the Di Cesare’s were generally pretty hard to track down, but the top brass had a pretty good line on their matriarch, Bianca Di Cesare. Supposedly, she’d been spotted near the family’s private estate in Brazil and rumor had it that most of her daughters were there too.

Normally, the brass wouldn’t have sanctioned any kind of attack on them. The Di Cesare’s were already considered off limits, and attacking them at their private estate was considered damn near impossible. The estate was located in a small mining town outside of Manaus called Refugio de Julia, or just Julia for short. The town was fairly remote, being only accessible from a few backroads and most folks tended to avoid it, claiming they’d had various strange encounters in the area. Their accounts described unsettling pale figures with dark hair and large green eyes working in the mines, although some of the more disturbing stories we heard involved sightings of other creatures in the jungle surrounding the town. Massive spiders with humanoid faces, tending rotting corpses filled with stinging bees, giant howling beasts who tore through the forest, hunting prey, and beautiful women who would appear in the nearby towns, betwitching men into coming away with them only to reveal themselves as monsters who fed on the blood of their victims. Some had even claimed the Di Cesares themselves were such beasts… although those claims weren’t taken quite as seriously.

A skeptic might say the stories that surrounded Julia seemed like little more than just local superstition… but the Brethren had been dealing with the supernatural for long enough to recognize when something was probably real, and when it was probably fake and they knew damn well that most of the stories about Julia were probably true. None of them had ever dared set foot in Julia to find out for sure, since doing so would probably be suicide, but the theory was that the Di Cesares had created Julia as something of a refuge for other creatures. Other vampires, werewolves, arachne, karah and all sorts of other hellspawn. They offered them a home and safety in exchange for their labor in the mines. Hell, the name of the town more or less spelled it out.

Refugio de Julia

Julia’s Haven.

Julia had been the name of the only member of the Di Cesare family that the Brethren had ever killed, so I guess it was only fitting they named the town after her.

I honestly think using other creatures like them as a workforce was a bit inspired… since it made Julia damn near impenetrable. Reaching their estate at the far side of the town would have been impossible without being noticed by every creature of hell living in that town, and odds are they’d tear anyone apart long before they even reached the gates of the Di Cesare estate. And if one had the bright idea to approach the estate from another angle, they’d be trudging through miles and miles of rainforest to do so, only end up face to face with a massive stone wall that kept the rainforest out.

In effect - the Di Cesare estate was a fortress. Getting in would be no easy feat, to say nothing of confronting the vampires within. But with the fear of the Imperium gnawing at the back of their minds, the Brethren had finally set their minds to trying.

George Bundy had been the one in charge of planning the operation out.

I’d known Bundy before I’d joined up with the Brethren. Hell, Bundy was the whole reason I’d joined the Brethren. He’d been my CO a number of years back, and he’d earned his reputation as a hardass just about ten or twenty times over. Bundy was a gruff looking man with a bushy moustache and intense eyes. During the years I knew him, I don’t believe I ever once saw him so much as crack a smile. He only ever seemed to speak when he felt there was something he needed to say. Otherwise, he was usually dead silent.

He was somewhere in his late fifties back in 88. By all rights, he ought to have retired years ago. But he refused.
“I’m a soldier,” He said, when I asked him about it once. “That’s all I am. I don’t know what else to be.”

Bundy’s initial plan had been to hit the Di Cesare estate from the air. Come in fast and loud with a couple of helicopters and see how those vampires stood up to some good old American flak. The idea got shot down pretty quickly, so to speak. Apperantly, most if not all of the Di Cesares had cursed their own bodies, causing whatever wound one inflicted on them to appear on whoever it was who had wounded them. Going in guns blazing would have ended in a bloodbath… and not for them. There were also some concerns about drawing attention from Julia. With no conclusive data on just what they had living in that town, there was no guarantee we’d be safe in the air. A few eyewitnesses had described seeing giant nests in some of the trees in the jungle, supposedly consistent with the nests made by harpies.

Flying in guns blazing was out. So Bundy went back to the drawing board and what he came back with… well, it was ballsy, but it almost seemed like it just might work. During his reconnisance of the Di Cesare’s estate, he’d noticed a large but shallow tributary flowing into the amazon river that led right through the Di Cesare’s estate. Along the tributary was an abandoned water mill, that connected to the Di Cesare estate.

He’d suggested using the water mill to gain entry to the grounds, and from there, move on the Di Cesare’s. That plan had been approved, and Bundy had been allowed to handpick his team for the operation. He’d chosen fifteen men, all of them ex military, most of them having served under him before.

He’d told us we would be dividing into three teams of five men each. We would leave Manaus by boat, and land at three different areas near the tributary before making our way to the mill on foot, where we would regroup, before moving on the Di Cesares. The reason for the division was to ensure that if any of our teams ran into trouble upon making ground, the entire operation wouldn’t be compromised.

Team 1, led by Bundy himself would depart first and land to the west of the tributary. Team 2, led by a man named Ferdinand Hernandez would make land about fifteen minutes later near the mouth of the tributary and Team 3, to be led by me would land fifteen minutes later to the east.

On the day of the operation, I sat in my boat, watching as the other two left. It was twilight when we set out, and I remember that as my team and I carried out our final checks on our equipment, the only thing I felt was a familiar anticipation.

I’d hesitate to call it fear. Fear is what came later. Anticipation is the better word. I knew we could be walking into a tough situation… but I trusted Bundy. I trusted he’d run a smooth op. God knew, he’d done it a thousand times before.

The team assigned to me wasn’t anything particularly special. They were competent enough, but none of them would’ve been my first choices. Jack McMullen, for instance, who was about the same age as I was at the time. We’d both served under Bundy before, although while I respected Bundy, Jack was wholly devoted to him. I swear, if the man had told him to stuff a live grenade up his ass, Jack would’ve done it without a moments hesitation. I dunno if Jack simply saw him as the father he’d never had or what, but he damn near worshipped Bundy.

I can’t quite say the same for the other guys we had with us, though. One of them, some greenhorn by the name of Pearce Wilson struck me as an airheaded pretty boy who’d never actually had his boots on the ground before, while the other one, Scott Barber had left a bad taste in my mouth last time we’d worked together. Barber was capable… but he was violent. This was a kid with a hell of a chip on his shoulder, and it looked a hell of a lot like that Confederate flag patch he wore on his jacket. He wanted an excuse to shoot something, and I don’t think he cared what. Under most circumstances I’m not sure I would’ve fully trusted him with a gun.

The last one though, Joseph Feng… him I trusted. Feng was the one I knew the least about, and he didn’t seem much for conversation. But he handled himself competently enough and seemed to know when to sit down and shut up.

When Team 2’s boat was far enough away, we got the radio signal to follow. Barber was the one steering the boat, so I gave him the order to cast off and we ventured out into the twilight, unaware of just what was waiting for us out there.

***

We landed in our designated area fifteen minutes after Team 2 confirmed they’d touched down at theirs. Our landing was fairly uneventful. Feng, Barber, and I secured the boat before we radio’d Bundy to let him know we were in position. After that, it was just a matter of making it to the tributary.

As we ventured into the jungle, the world around us was quiet. There was wind, the whisper of the river behind us, and the sounds of animals. But little else. The river fell away behind us as we moved in single file toward the tributary, maintaining radio silence as we did.

It was about a half hour before we heard the gunshot.

Just one, echoing through the twilight. But it was enough to give us pause.

“The fuck was that?” I heard Barber ask. Immediately, the kid was on high alert, with his gun raised as if he were expecting every monster in Julia to come charging at us from all angles.
I just listened, waiting to hear if there was anything else. I half expected my radio to come to life, but it didn’t.
“Team 1, status?” I asked.
The radio crackled with static, but there was no response.

I tried it again, but still with no success. The radio was working, that much I was sure of. Something had to be blocking the signal.
“What’s going on?” Feng asked.
“Dunno,” I replied. “Comms are down.”
“Down?” Wilson asked, “So we’re flying blind out here, then?”
“More or less,” I replied.
“What do we do? Do we go back… if the comms are down…”
“Just because something’s jamming our signal doesn’t mean we’re made,” I said. “Relax. We keep moving for now. You keep your eyes wide open, and your head on a swivel. We’ll make it to the tributary and see if we can’t meet up with the other teams.”
I could tell Wilson wasn’t a fan of my answer, but I didn’t much care. We had a job to do, and I aimed to do it.

I pressed on without a further word and the others followed. Up ahead, I could hear the sound of running water and picked up the pace. I figured the tributary had to be close… and I was right.

I emerged from the brush into the stream, only to pause when I saw what was waiting for us in the water.

In the dying sunlight, it was impossible to mistake the bodies sprawled out on the rocks as anything else… and all I needed to do was look at their uniforms to know they were our people.
“Jesus…” I heard Wilson say under his breath. He froze up, lingering by the bank as I cautiously approached one of the bodies.

It belonged to a somewhat heavyset man with a thin mustache who I recognized as Hernandez. His eyes were still open, although lifeless and staring in different directions, and there was a clean hole in his forehead where a bullet had ended his life. The gunshot we’d heard earlier had likely been the sound of his death.

Looking at the bodies around him, I knew they had to be the rest of Team 2… although it was a little harder pinning down their cause of death. Some sort of bladed weapon, perhaps, judging by the state of them. I realized the odds were that they walked into some sort of ambush.
“What about Bundy and Team 1?” Jack asked, “Any sign of them?”
“No,” I said. “These bodies are all from Team 2… Bundy could still be ahead of us.”
“Then we need to keep going!”

Jack turned, heading up the stream and Barber was right behind him. Feng paused for a moment, thinking this over before following. Only Wilson remained.
“How do we know we’re not walking into a trap?” He asked.
“We’ll deal with that when we get to it,” I said before moving to follow the others.
“With all due respect, Sarge… that doesn’t sound like the best course of action!” Wilson argued, finally following me. “It sounds just like a good way to get killed!”
“Yeah?” I asked, “I’m gonna tell you an ugly truth, kid. That’s the job. Make your peace with it, and it’ll go a lot easier.”

Wilson didn’t like that answer either and trailed off behind me, watching as I continued upstream. For a moment, I half expected him to go back to the boat… but no. I dunno if he found his balls or just didn’t want to get left behind, but he started to follow us again.

I kept trying to raise Team 1 on the radio while we walked, although I still had no luck. The light above us slowly faded into darkness as we trudged through the water in silence, guns sitting comfortably in our hands and mosquitos biting at our necks.

It wasn’t until we lost Feng that I heard anybody so much as make a sound, and when we lost Feng… it happened almost instantaneously. One minute, he was at the head of the group, walking just ahead of Jack and I. The next, he was gone, only barely having the time to let out a scream as he fell into the river ahead of us.

The rest of us paused. Jack seemed to freeze and I pushed past him, calling out for Feng as I did. As punishment for my compassion, I almost went down after him. I only barely stopped myself from stepping on the slippery rocks that had helped send him to his demise.

I could see Feng’s body in the water, and I could see the blood pouring out of him. He twitched a few times, but I knew he was dead. The sharpened wooden spikes jutting out of him confirmed as much.
“What the hell…” Jack said under his breath, staring at Feng’s corpse in disbelief. “That’s a fucking spike trap!”

Yeah.

It was indeed a fucking spike trap.

I could see other spikes jutting out of the water ahead of us, just past a small dam of rocks that were just slippery enough to make it difficult to stop yourself from falling. Some of those spikes had other bodies on them… likely members of Team 1. I only counted two, although that still didn’t exactly bode well.

“They put a fucking spike trap in the goddamn stream…” Jack said, “Who the hell does that?”
“Somebody who’s expecting us to use the stream,” I replied.
“So they know we’re coming?” Barber asked.
“Clearly…” I replied. “And they’ve got a good idea on what our route is too.”

“Yeah, no shit!” Barber snapped. “Christ… let’s get the fuck out of here. There’s probably more fucking traps upstream!”
“Bundy’s orders were clear!” Jack argued.
“Bundy’s probably dead by now!” Barber replied, before looking at me. “Sarge, come on. You have to know this is suicide!”
“Suicide was part of the job description, was it not?” I asked.
“The job is to kill those fucking vampires, not to die in the goddamn process! We need to get out of the stream and into the woods!”

“Judging by the fate Team 2 met, I’m not sure the forest is someplace we want to be right now,” I replied.
“Excuse me?” Barber asked, “What the hell are you talking about, Sarge?”
“Five men dead, but only one gunshot. How did the rest die?”

Barber didn’t seem to be able to answer that.
“By now… yes. It’s clear we’ve walked into a trap. And yes, I understand that it makes sense to try and leave that trap… but I don’t know if we’ll be safer in the jungle. Something jumped Team 2. Cut them apart, and then shot Hernandez as a warning. They didn’t have to shoot him. They did it so we’d hear.”
“Your point being?” Barber asked.
“I don’t think this is just a trap, Barber. It’s a game. Stop playing, and you might just end up like our friends downstream.”
“A game?” Wilson asked, “Sarge, you can’t be serious!”

“From where I’m standing, we have a better chance of surviving in the stream,” I said. “Look, we’re at least halfway to the rendezvous point, and there have to be at least two members of Team 1 left. The safest thing to do right now is to follow them.”
“You’re off your fucking rocker, Sarge,” Barber spat, locking his eyes with mine. For a moment, I thought the boy was going to try and fight me. But no. He was wise enough to stand down.
“If you wanna get yourself killed, go right the fuck ahead. Just leave me out of it! Wilson, come on,” Barber said before trudging over to the edge of the stream. Wilson didn’t even hesitate, just looking back at Jack and I quietly before he disappeared into the forest with Barber.

“You’re not gonna stop them?” Jack asked.
“No,” I replied. “God willing, there’s a chance that pigheaded asshole is right… dunno how much of a chance, but a chance.”
“Then how come we’re not following him?” Jack asked.
“There’s also a chance he’s wrong.”
I turned, before making my way around the spike trap.
“Keep a slower pace,” I said. “Watch for traps.”

Jack hesitated for a moment, but he followed me without any further questions and we walked in silence for a little longer.

We heard nothing from the trees. Nothing that told us about the fate of Barber and Wilson. I wasn’t sure if that was good news or not.

In fact, I don’t think we heard a thing until about a half hour later, when we heard the explosion.

It came out of almost nowhere, but ahead of us I could see a flash of light and hear the screams of men. On instinct, I found myself picking up the pace and could hear Jack behind me. In the low light, I saw a shape float past me in the stream. It took me a moment to realize that it was a severed human arm.

In the water ahead of us, I could see a figure clinging to one of the rocks and trying to pick himself up. I recognized him as George Bundy.

Jack was at his side almost immediately, trying to help the old man to his feet.
“Sir! Are you alright?”
Bundy just wheezed, before his legs gave out from under him. I helped Jack drag him to the shore so he could sit and rest for a moment.
“What the hell was that?” I asked, looking back at the stream.
“Grenade trap… I think…” Bundy panted, “Fucking tripwire… Popkov tripped it, I think…”

Popkov… odds are he was one of the two mangled corpses lying in the river a few feet away from us. It seemed they’d taken the brunt of the explosion, although Bundy still had some shrapnel in his arm that Jack was tending to.
“Christ… whole fucking ops gone to shit…” Bundy spat. “Team 2 got taken out just about as soon as they landed. Someone killed them and dumped them in the goddamn river. Lost half my boys to the fucking spike trap and half to this…”

He looked up at us, before spitting onto the ground.
“Guess you two haven’t done much better.”
“Hard to say,” I replied. “Two of ours took off into the woods, trying to avoid the traps.”
“Then they’re dead,” Bundy replied. “I’ve seen her watching us… always just up ahead, always from a distance… she’s seeing how far we’ll go. How much we’ll take…”
“She?” I asked.
“La Morte. Should’ve figured she’d be the one to greet us.”
“La Morte?” I asked.

“It’s Italian. Supposedly, she earned that name around the time the Di Cesares fled Venice. It’s funny, the Brethren like to act like the Di Cesares leaving Venice was some big victory of theirs, since before they did, they finally killed one of them… hard to call it a victory though, considering how many corpses they made before they fled. And most of them came from La Morte…”
Bundy winced in pain as Jack bandaged his arm before he continued talking.

“See… when the Di Cesare’s left Venice, one of them stayed behind. Clementine, the Scorpio sister. Guess she was unwilling to leave the fight unfinished… and according to the stories, the death toll she personally amassed in the years after the Di Cesare’s left Venice make the bodies they claimed during the Venetian Massacre a hundred and fifty years prior look like a pittance. The Brethren still occupying the city started to call her La Morte. Death. Cuz wherever she went, death followed in her wake… and it seems we’ve walked right into her open arms, haven’t we, boys?”

“You’re sure it’s her?” I asked.
“She’s a Di Cesare… and the shit we’ve seen out here… I don’t see any other Di Cesare setting those traps. It’s her. I’m sure of it. She’s watching us. Seeing how far we’ll go. Seeing if we’ll turn tail…”
“Should we?” Jack asked, and Bundy finally seemed to acknowledge him.
“Excuse me?” He asked.
“Should we? Look, sir… I’d follow you into the mouth of Hell, but right now, we’re down from fifteen men to three. Can’t say I’m optimistic about our chances right now. If this woman is half as bad as you’re saying she is, maybe it’s time we took a step back!”

Jack looked at me, hoping I might back him up, but I remained silent.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Bundy asked.
“What I’m hearing here, is that as of right now, the vampire out there could kill us at any time. She hasn’t. Far as I’m concerned, that’s mercy. Maybe we should be taking it while it’s offered.”
Bundy stared at him, before chuckling. I think it was the first time I’d ever seen him laugh.

“Just walk away, then?” He asked.
“Walk away, and come back better prepared!” Jack corrected.
“Walk away,” Bundy said again. “We walk away now, and there won’t be a chance to come back better prepared. We get one shot at this. One. Failure is not an option. We go in there and we kill them or we die. End of discussion.”
“And how exactly are we even supposed to kill them?” Jack asked, “That curse they have… bullets aren’t gonna do shit, sir!”
“Yours won’t, mine will…”
Bundy pulled his pistol from his holster. I noticed some sort of pattern crudely engraved on it.

“I’ve been doing some research… studied the curse they put on themselves… and I think I’ve found a way to break it. Not sure if it’ll work yet… but we get one chance to test it.”
Jack stared at the gun, then back at Bundy.
“Sir… do you hear yourself?” He asked quietly, “You can’t be serious… right now, even with that gun we don’t stand a chance in he-”

The gunshot echoed through the forest and made me jump. Jack’s voice died in his throat as he hit the ground.

Bundy stared at him for a moment, before huffing and holstering his pistol again. He draped his coat over his shoulders, before looking over at me.
“No room for failure, Frank,” He said calmly.
I didn’t know what to say to that. I stared down at Jack’s body, my mouth hanging open slightly. When I looked back at Bundy, he was already back in the stream.

There was a tense silence between Bundy and I as I followed him along the final stretch of the tributary. He trudged on ahead, covered in sweat and straining with every step, but I could sense the quiet determination he had to see this through. Looking at him, you could’ve told me that George Bundy could wipe out the Di Cesare’s all by himself and I would have believed it in a second.

The night around us was full of sound, and each one drew my attention. I watched the forest, expecting to see some sign of La Morte watching us. But I saw nothing, except for what she wanted me to see.
“Mill’s just up ahead,” I heard Bundy say as we pressed on, although I noticed his steps faltering as he seemed to notice something in the trees above us. I stopped behind him, looking up before seeing what he saw, and when I saw it I felt my stomach turn.

I’d seen death before.
But what Di Cesare had left out for us… that was something else.
Pearce Wilson and Scott Barber weren’t dead.
But if they could have spoke, I’ve got no doubt they would have begged us to kill them. Wilsons pretty face was covered in blood and his pouty lips were parted as more trickled out of him. His curly blond hair was matted and I could see crimson there. Tree branches portruded from his ribs, while the loops of his entrails dangled out of his opened stomach. And Barber was in just about the same state, only he seemed to at least have the ability to turn his head to look at us.

I think he might have tried to speak, but the only sound he seemed to be able to make was a pained whimper.
“Jesus Christ…” I said softly.
“He had nothing to do with this,” Bundy replied. He took one last look at the two dying men hanging from the trees, before moving on.
“We should put them out of their misery, sir,” I said.

Bundy paused, before looking back at me.
“Don’t waste the ammo, Frank,” He replied. “They’re already dead.”
“Not yet they’re not!”
“Give them time. They chose to go into the woods. They can live with the consequences… for however long that lasts.”

With that, he left them. If I were a more compassionate man, I would have put them out of their misery. But no. Bundy moved on and so did I.

He approached the water mill, before examining it. It was an old building, made of stone that had long since been overgrown by moss, and sat right on the wall that separated the Di Cesares estate from the amazon. It hardly looked secure, even if the only entrance hadn’t just been an old wooden door secured with a padlock, finding a way in wouldn’t have been difficult. And it didn’t take much for Bundy to break through that door. All he needed was a couple of well placed kicks and it swung right open.

Drawing his gun, Bundy strode inside and I followed him.
“The Di Cesare’s will be in the main house,” He said. “We should find a way in through the back, try and catch them off guard. Main target should be the matriarch, Bianca. Her we should prioritize keeping alive… the rest are expendable.”

“Much as you are, I’m sure.” A voice called from deeper in the mill, and both Bundy and I froze.
I noticed movement on the floor above us, and through the shadows, I saw a tall woman watching us. She was dressed all in black, with blond hair tied back in a ponytail and the intense eyes of a soldier.

This had to be Clementine Di Cesare.

Bundy aimed his pistol at her, although she only barely seemed to notice.
“Only two of you left… I’m not sure the odds are in your favor,” The woman said. Her voice was low, calm and quiet.
“Only one way to find out,” Bundy growled.
“And only one way to walk out of this place alive,” Di Cesare countered. “You can put the gun down, turn and walk away. I won’t stop you. There’s no shame in living.”

“All the bodies you’ve left in your wake… that’s rich,” Bundy said.
“I don’t relish what I’ve done. I simply don’t know how to do anything else,” She replied. “Think about this, Bundy. Over my lifetime, there have been countless thousands who have come to kill me. All of them are dead, but I am not. Even if you could kill me… you could not kill my sisters. Not all of them. Not before they came for you.”
“Just you, would be enough…” Bundy said, before pulling the trigger.

I knew he’d hit her. I knew the bullet pierced her shoulder. But that woman… she didn’t even flinch. She simply dove out of the way before he could shoot again, taking cover and avoiding his next shot.
“Frank, upstairs!” Bundy snapped, “Flush her out!”
I went, trudging up the old wooden steps with my rifle drawn. Only to see Di Cesare vaulting over the railing and back down to the ground floor as soon as I made it up there.

Bundy shot at her again, only to miss for a second time. I saw Di Cesare’s arm move, and heard him cry out in pain. In the low light, I could see a dagger protruding from his shoulder. He stumbled back a step, leaving himself open for only a split second.

That second was all it took for Di Cesare to raise her own gun and fire just one shot.

George Bundy hit the ground without so much as a final scream. There was just a simple hole in his skull where she had shot him.

I felt my heart start to race faster. My eyes settled on Bundy’s gun, and I ran for the railing, vaulting it and dropping to the ground below with a thud. Di Cesare shot at me, and I felt the bullet tear through my leg. I reached out for the fallen gun and grabbed it before turning it on Di Cesare, only to find myself staring down the barrel of her own pistol. My finger rested on the trigger, but I didn’t have the guts to pull it.

"Kill me, and you will not see the sun tomorrow." She said, her voice still cold and calm.
“Killing you is part of the job…” I replied, but my finger still couldn’t squeeze the trigger.
“And is it worth your life?” Di Cesare asked. “You fail your mission either way.”
“And die with some goddamn honor…”
“There’s no such thing as honor. There is alive and there is dead. Choose.”

I knew what I was supposed to choose.

But my hands were shaking, as I stared into the face of death. My finger couldn’t squeeze the trigger.

The gun collapsed to the floor and Di Cesare kicked it away from me, before huffing and lowering her gun.
“Do not return,” She said softly. “Or next time, I will unleash a hell upon you that will make you beg for simple traps.”

She picked Bundy’s gun up off the ground, and then she was gone. After I finally picked myself up off the ground, I was gone too.

As I walked back along the stream… I passed the corpses of the men we’d left behind. Barber and Wilson, Jack, Feng, Hernandez, and his team. The flies were already feasting on them. Animals had already torn at them. And as I looked down at their cold corpses, I knew I had made the right choice.

I filed my report with the Brethren. Told them that Di Cesare had wiped us out, and a few months later I quietly retired. I never looked back.

***

“You walked away from her?” Sweeney asked in disbelief, “You had her dead to rights and you walked away from her?”
“I chose to live,” I replied. “Can’t say I regret the decision either. Because of the choice I made, I met my wife and had my kids. I’ve lived the life I had because I chose not to throw it away on some vampire.”

Sweeney just shook his head.
“You could have gotten the first confirmed kill on a Di Cesare in two centuries, and you threw it away you fucking coward! I could execute you for that!” I noticed his hand hovering over the gun on his hip.
“You could.” I replied, before quietly unholstering the pistol I kept at my side. I aimed it at Sweeney’s head.

He stared at me like a slack jawed idiot.
“Would you like to give it a try?”
“W-what…?”
“Would you like to give it a try, Mr. Sweeney? Or would you like to see the sun tomorrow?”
He stared down the barrel of my gun, and I already knew what his choice would be.

Sweeney took a step back. I saw his hand move away from his holster, and I lowered the gun with a huff.
“Thought so,” I said.
Mr. Sweeney left me without another word.
I knew he would not return.

Police are requesting the public’s assistance in identifying a suspect wanted in connection with an alleged assault on a TTC bus in Scarborough on Friday morning near Kennedy Road and Sheppard Avenue East.
It was reported that the victim was standing on board an eastbound TTC bus near the front doors, while the suspect was sitting near the rear exit doors.
“As the bus came to a stop at Kennedy Road, with no provocation, the suspect attacked the victim putting him in a choke hold and causing injuries,” police said in a press release.
“The suspect then fled the bus on foot, south on Kennedy Road.”
Police released images of the male suspect on Saturday. He is described as being between 30 and 40 years old, with a black beard, last seen wearing a white tank top, khaki cargo shorts and black shoes.
https://www.cp24.com/news/man-wanted-after-allegedly-putting-victim-in-chokehold-in-unprovoked-attack-on-ttc-bus-1.6426058

If anyone lives in Raleigh or just knows good areas to ride, please let me know. DM if you want want to share too much about your location publicly.
I'm on the east edge of downtown and I'm trying to find roads that are decent for intervals and having a hard time. There's plenty of good riding, but I haven't found that long flat stretch I was spoiled with in Ohio where we had rails to trails (never thought I'd say I was spoiled with anything in Ohio). The greenways are nice for leisurely spins but I found out real quick you can't maintain hard efforts on them. It looks like there's a lot of good riding out of Apex or Chapel Hill, but I'd really love to be able to step out my door and be somewhere decent within 30 minutes of riding.

When I was born, I knew that something was wrong. My mother was a nameless woman who showed me around town and pointed out that we had no pies, no iron, dead gooseberry stumps, and a pen full of dead sheep. I only had two allies— my mother and aunt— and slash leader pointed to my mother. This didn’t make sense for a thriving family (Gen 28 Marmaduke) during high pop hours. This looked more like a looted town. Mom had no idea how we got here, she said that she and her sister were born here and her mother died young. I formed a theory— grandma was likely exiled from main fam and ran east till she found a dead town to resettle. That would explain why we had no allies. The only solution would be to travel west again in hopes of finding the main fam.
I was nervous about this plan— what if this really was the main family’s town, my mom and I were the last descendants, and there was nothing to find in the western wilderness? What if I had road babies, the last descendants of the Marmaduke fam, who would die by wilderness starvation? It was risky, but I didn’t want my children to grow up in this barren shell. As I explained my plan to my mom, I got a notification that my aunt died by wolf. It was just us two, and it was time. I loaded up the only horsecart with some clothing and food, and we set off north for the highway.
Instead of the arctic highway, we found the rubber road sandwiched between the desert and jungle. If grandma really had been an exiled person looking for a new home, she had likely come along this highway, which meant if we followed it west we may find our homeland. It was just a theory but it was all I had. I set off west, my mom trailing behind and occasionally sending orders so we could keep in contact. At one point I rode my horse right past a wild boar, and doubled back to warn my mom of the danger. We made it safely through the swamp and I started seeing signs of civilization— fallen branches, old plates, rabbit clothing that had not yet decayed. Soon enough there were skeletons that shared our last name. We had to be getting close! Finally I found a road leading south, and I knew this had to be it. I went back to tell my mom, and as I dipped below the road into the fertile zone I had my first child. Luckily my mom had caught up by that point and grabbed the horse. I named my baby Son, and the three of us walked down the road as a family.
We were lucky. The southern road really did lead to the main Marmaduke town, one that was bustling and full of production. I followed their leader, reuniting our families, and took my son to the nursery. But as I tried to talk to Son, I recognized the distant gaze in his eyes. That boy never really came back from the road. As I was mourning my braindead son, I had another child, and then another— two sweet girls, and both awake unlike their disappointment of a brother. Daughn and Princess lived long happy lives and had lots of children, all in a big town with lots of resources for them to thrive.

We're staying in Schärding tonight, on the Inn, but tomorrow, we head to Passau and thence down the Danube. I presume that many bicycletouring subscribers have done this stretch before. Any tips on which side is nicer (by nicer I mean fewer hills, more pavement/less gravel, and less car traffic--though I realize that more pavement sometimes means more cars too)? Or any stretches on one particular side to be avoided?
Our route today along the EV7, from Braunau am Inn to Schärding was not great. In addition to a weird headwind (from due east!), there was lots of poorly maintained gravel road and a good chunk of poorly maintained bike path. As you enter Schärding, there's a finally a newly paved downhill stretch that turns suddenly into fairly squirrelly gravel right at the bottom. WTF! Surprised the heck out of me, and I nearly wiped out! Everyone seems to rave about the DRW; I certainly hope it's in better shape than this particular stretch of the EV7!
Thanks in advance!

Does anyone commute in to the campus from the east of the island ( Montague/Souris) etc. Just wondering what the road conditions are like realistically in the winter with a 1 hour drive to Charlottetown daily Thanks!