David was quite happy to see his uncle, Jeff lived near Colorado Springs and worked at some kind of hospital as an IT worker. Behind him were his two cousins, Sarah and Bella were nineteen and sixteen respectably. They both carried the black hair that was the signature of the Wilson Family, but Sarah had green eyes, and Bella had hazel.

 

“I am going to get my son, don’t try to stop me!” His father yelled over the rumbling of the tank's engine.

 

Now that David was up close to it, he could see that it was a shell that had been fitted over a hodgepodge of different machines. It looked like he had taken some kind of backhoe that used tracks, and converted it into what it was now. He could also see that the turret was a cannon that his mother was standing behind, her head out of the hatch.

 

“Hurry up honey, David has been surrounded by the undead for months!” His mother called down to her husband, she was wearing a bicycle helmet that was painted to look like an army helmet.

 

David watched his parents as they continued trying to get the tank under control, firing the cannon had created a giant cloud of smoke and it looked like smoke was coming out of the tank. David could tell that his father hadn’t properly adjusted the cannon to handle the recoil and the issues the tank was experiencing were from that. 

 

“Dad, I am over here!” He yelled out.

 

“I know you are, son, I can practically hear you calling for my help!” His dad said choked up with emotion. “But that will end now, your father is coming!”

 

“DAD, STOP!” David yelled.

 

Halfway through he was interrupted by the roar of the tank's engine, its metal tracks began to spin rapidly, kicking clumps of dirt and mud all over David who was trying to chase after the tank. When he had brought friends over they often wondered why he didn’t become a mechanic when he had such an inventive father, now as he was trying to get the mud out of his nose as he chased after the tank, he was currently being reminded. His mother was trying to get his father’s attention, they were getting further and further from David who was chasing them, they weren’t even going the right way.

 

“Dad, why the hell do you always have to embarrass me like this!” David said as he stopped, completely covered in filth. 

 

Memories were playing through his mind of all the times his father had caused him embarrassment, his vehicle for prom had been a car that his father had made him. It was called “Little Mac 238” and it looked just like a sports car. That was until you sat down inside of it and realized holes were going through it and the seats were taken from different cars. 

 

“David, how the fuck you git over here?” A man’s voice rang out. “Ain’t ye supposed to be at the hospital?”

 

David looked over and saw his other uncle, this one married into his family. His aunt was the older sister of her two little brothers, and she was always the responsible one. Dane had another nickname in high school from what David had been told, and that was Danger. 

 

Rarely was a nickname longer than your real name, but that was due to how much of a hellion he had been growing up. Tight blue jeans, black leather cowboy boots, and a shirt made of denim. He had dark blonde hair that was cropped short under a trucker’s hat that featured a bull on it. On his hip was a .357 magnum, and he also had a short lead pipe that was wrapped in chains with nails welded onto it. 

 

David nodded several times as he saw this mace, as a connoisseur of blunt weapons from his days of swinging around a foam bat he felt that his uncle-in-law had great taste. He suddenly thought that his mace could use some spikes, then he stopped when he realized that he would no longer need to wield one. Looking at the shiny gun on his uncle's hip, he was also reminded of the junkyard he ran a few miles away.

 

“Uncle Dane, how have you been?” He asked happily.

 

“Alright, can’t complain.” He said before he laughed a few times then continued. “Little Macklin and your mother were worried sick about you, who is that by the way?”

 

Dane was the first to notice the blonde woman who made her way to David’s side and seemed to peer at the other people coldly. In particular, she seemed to eye his uncle Jeff like a predator, he could also feel her tension seem to increase. Looking at his father’s older brother, he noticed that the man was looking at her as if he had seen a ghost. 

 

David recalled that Sarah and Bella’s mother had passed away due to a medical condition when they were both still young. He had been in his late teens and Sarah who was six years younger than him was only eleven and had even come to stay with them a few times with Bella. David was suddenly interrupted when he saw the tank slowly turning around in the distance, he guessed his mother had finally gotten his father’s attention. 

 

David could see his father’s head sticking out of the hatch in front of the turret, tears were streaming down his eyes. His father had never been one to hide his emotions, he would laugh loudly when he was happy and he would cry just as loudly during sad movies. The large smile that was almost always on his face was what always made him seem so young, David suddenly realized just how much older he looked now that he was crying.

 

His mother too had also acquired some wrinkles, and her long white hair was no longer as shiny and lustrous. While her eyes were still as bright as the stars, he could also see tears falling from the corners of them. He was suddenly reminded that it had been several years since he went to college then settled on law school.

 

“Son, you're safe!” His dad said. “I am so glad, I was worried about you every single night!”   

 

The large tank had stopped a few meters in front of him, and he could hear all kinds of rattling sounds coming from inside of it. David watched his dad poke his head back into the hatch, he could then hear him start fighting with several levers before the giant metal machine stopped rumbling. David’s mother was already climbing out of the top of the tank, she wasn’t as expressive as his father.

 

His mother had been a victim of sex trafficking, it wasn’t known where she was originally from, and she didn’t have many memories of those days. She had been subjected to a lot of different drugs and she had been picked up by the United States Navy and was made a citizen of the United States. His father had met her when he was on deployment when she was brought to the military base that she was brought to. 

 

David felt his mother wrap her arms around him, she was much stronger than he had expected from seeing her frame. His father was also making his way out of the tank, his face was covered in tears and snot was all running into his large beard. It was both touching and disgusting, David always felt embarrassed by the bald man who was several inches(~7.5CM) shorter than him.

 

This was of course in direct contrast to his mother who was taller than him by the same amount that he was shorter than his father. It was quite strange to see that his mother was almost a head taller than her husband, he also realized that she had a similarly stoic expression to the blonde woman behind him. During the time that he was hugging his mother, the two women had started eyeing each other.

 

David’s mother had pale blue eyes and Lena had dark blue ones, and Lena was only a little shorter than David was. The two seemed like copies of each other as they both had similar bearing and stature, this caused both David and his father who were embracing to pause and stare at the show. This was because it was almost eerie how it looked, but suddenly his mother broke this silence.

 

“Daughter-in-law?” This was all she asked.

 

This caused David to feel like he was punched in the stomach, while Lena was good looking the two of them hadn’t talked at all abo-

 

What?! No! Stop nodding with that look in your eyes!

 

David felt aggrieved as he saw that Lena was nodding with a blush forming on her face, he could see a bizarre light in her eyes. She seemed to be experiencing a deep excitement, this was only increased when his mother stepped forward and hugged the blonde woman. Lena then looked over at David with an exuberant expression, this caused him to feel a deep chill work its way down his spine.

 

“David, you shouldn’t have picked up my habits with women.” his father told him sternly.

 

“What do you mean?” David asked.

 

“Son, I know what crazy looks like.” His father told him with the look of an aged monk. “I gave her gifts, I barked like a dog, I did everything for my wife!” He said this as he flashed her his signature toothy smile, this caused David to feel a chill. “I guess it runs in the family! Wilson’s can only produce crazy women, they can also only take them in!”

 

David paused when his father told him that Lena was crazy, while he had to admit that she was different, she didn’t seem like she was crazy. Looking over he could see Lena looking over his mother’s shoulder the two women were hugging each other, she was looking at his uncle Jeff with a cold smile. Jeff looked scared and he was pale, it was clear to David that there was something between the two of them.

 

Suddenly David remembered the pictures he had seen of the blonde woman when she was naked, and he felt his breath catch in his throat. David suddenly looked at his uncle as if he was seeing trash, it was clear from the fear his uncle felt that he knew something about what had happened to her. Just as he was about to step forward and say something to his uncle, he was stopped by Lena who had returned with his mother. 

 

“Why not?” He asked her, but she just shook her head.

 

David suddenly noticed there was a chill coming from her eyes and he realized that she would take revenge on her own. He was shocked that his uncle was a part of something so disgusting, but he could tell from looking that his uncle was terrified of the blonde woman. He could only imagine how angry his brother and aunt would be if they found out he was a part of molesting several women in an asylum, even if he wasn’t the one directly doing it.

 

Wow, he took part in shit like that when he knew what my mother had been through! 

 

David had no idea what Lena was going to do to the man but he decided he wasn’t going to get involved. He instead focused his attention back on his mother, but she was looking at him proudly, he realized denying it was pointless. Instead, he focused his attention back on the offender, Lena was walking next to his mother as she belonged there. 

 

David could see they were making their way into the large hole that was made in the wall by the large tank. David could also see a group of survivors that was watching the group through the wall, Dane had also made his way over and was smoking a cigarette. His father was still getting his emotions in check, David was also trying to get his in order as well.

 

His uncle Jeff had scurried away as soon as he saw Lena, David had no idea where he went or what he was planning. David suddenly felt like he should tell his father, but then he stopped as he realized that he shouldn’t divulge things about Lena without her consent. Looking back at the blonde woman he could only see her smiling gently, but it didn’t reach her eyes, they looked like ice cubes.

 

He realized that it was not his place to get involved, while he had liked his uncle, he also couldn’t condone behavior like that. David had yet to understand anything about the blonde woman, her past, her thoughts, or even how she felt. Deciding that this would be the best way to start to understand the woman, he decided to leave it to her, she would probably tell his mother about it when the two of them were making dinner.

 

“Well Mack, you made a hole, now what?” Dane asked him as he walked over with a cigarette hanging from his mouth.

 

“I was thinking we can probably put a steel plate down as a retainer wall and fill it with concrete. The steel structure is mostly intact, and I can always add more, the alternative is to remove the section and rebuild it.” His father answered. “I do still have a lot of extra cinder blocks in the back of the barn, we could probably rebuild it in a few hours.”

 

David looked at the two men, then he looked over at the large hole in the wall.

 

“You have great timing son, you can help your father patch this up!” His dad told him with a smile. “Which would you prefer, the metal plate, or carrying cinder blocks?”

 

Dane nodded a few times at his brother-in-law and flashed David a smile, both of the older men were looking at him the same way. 

 

Did I just get relegated to pack mule as soon as I arrived? 

 

David looked around but he noticed that both Lena and his mother had gone, he also hadn’t seen his aunt anywhere, he assumed the women were all working in their section of the farm. There was also a growing group of people that were watching them through a hole in the wall. David could see men and women of various ages, probably around forty to fifty of them. 

 

“Who are all those people?” David asked.

 

“Refugees, from Denver,” Dane said.

 

“What? What do you mean?” He asked.

 

“A man named Marco took over the whole of the city,” Dane told him. “The white house and congress were also destroyed by some freak that was covered in bandages. He was able to withstand a nuclear blast with his bare body, it didn’t even pull the bandages off of him, the guy looked like a mummy.”

 

David paused as he suddenly recalled from his memory someone who fit this description.

 

“Did he have a strange golden blade that was stabbed through his body? It should have looked like a short sword?” David asked suddenly.

 

“Yeah, it was in his chest,” Dane said. “How did you know?”

 

David’s mind was reeling from the information he was receiving, he knew exactly who the figure wearing bandages was, he was the cursed sword itself. The cursed sword was a creation of the Machine Lord that could control a body, the bandages were a part of the sword, they weren’t real. The bandages were a part of the curse that allowed the blade to control the body.

 

The sword was unbreakable, that tends to be the usual weak point with a cursed blade, a normal cursed sword tends to be very brittle.

 

“Where did he go after that? Did he start targeting the other governments of the world?” David asked seriously.

 

“That is right, although there were very few of them left,” Dane said. “China is also on the ropes, at least from the last news we got. A giant metal statue appeared in the center of Beijing, it then proceeded to scream. Twenty-two million people died instantly, the survivors are now using it to kill monsters, but they also have other issues.”

 

The main reason he knew about the cursed sword was that one of the Tullens had sealed it away after the Machine Lord had escaped. For a while he allowed the family to continue existing as they were reduced to almost nothing, he suddenly realized that those pillars outside of Castle Rock were a serious problem. Anyone who could survive being sealed would be a true monster, they would all be at a level that was nearly impossible for the people on Earth to deal with.

 

The Angel of Death landed in China, which is unfortunate, too bad there isn’t a safe way to use it at all.

 

“A dragon has also made its home in Siberia.” His uncle said. “A white one, he is as long as a building, great, big wings on it.”

 

What? The Machine Lord exterminated the dragons…