Standing in a strange office, Dane tried to swallow his nervous energy and put on a brave face. Neither had any idea what to expect. When the chair swiveled around, they were surprised to see the face of a young man who appeared to be about twenty years old.

"Welcome," the man said with a charming smile. He stood tall with broad shoulders, a chiseled jawline, and the physique of a superhero.

Dane and Allie had no idea who this person was or what he wanted with them, but he appeared to be important. He was also a lot nicer than they had expected. Their fears of him being a cannibalistic cult leader quickly subsided.

The man walked over to greet them. His presence made Dane feel insecure as a man, which wasn't exactly saying much. Allie felt an immediate attraction to him.

"Please allow me to introduce myself," the young man said with a confident smile. "My name is Daxon, but you can call me Dax. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The name meant nothing to Dane and Allie, who both looked at each other. They had yet to say a word.

"I'm told you have some information for me," the man said. "But first, let's start with your names."

"I'm Dane and this is Allie."

"Hi," Daxon said, bowing to each of them. Dane and Allie were a little caught off guard. They reluctantly returned the bow, half expecting it to be some kind of trap. "You must be hungry. Can I get you something to eat?" he offered.

Dane cleared his dry throat and asked, "Do you have a menu?"

Allie shot Dane a look as if it was a ridiculous question to ask.

"What?" Dane mouthed.

Without missing a beat, the man smiled and said, "Of course, where are my manners. I'll have one of my staff bring you and your beautiful girlfriend some menus."

"I'm not his girlfriend," Allie was quick to point out.

"Not yet," Dane shot back.

Daxon laughed and said, "You know what, I like you two. Very well, you're not his girlfriend... but you are beautiful. There's no denying that. What would you like to drink? We have water, cranberry juice, soda, whiskey, beer... No, you don't strike me as beer people. You strike me as someone who wouldn't accept an open drink from a strange man, am I right? Hey, Ro, can you please grab two bottles of water for our guests? Thanks."

Dane and Allie looked around the plush office. There was a large floor-to-ceiling window to the left that overlooked the entire club.

"So how was the ride over here?" Daxon asked, returning his attention to his new guests.

"First class," Allie said.

"Well, I'm sorry if my men were a little rough. I keep telling them that they need to work on their soft skills. It's what makes us civilized, am I right? We're not barbarians. We're trying to run a society here."

Within seconds, two ice-cold waters arrived, delivered by a beautiful waitress. She removed the drinks from her tray and handed them to Dane and Allie. Dane wasted no time chugging the entire bottle of water.

"What is this place?" Allie asked.

"We are in a formerly abandoned city," Daxon said, returning to his chair. "Here, there are a different set of laws and customs. We believe in people first. But as you know, this way of life threatens the establishment and therefore we need to protect ourselves. But I don't feel I need to worry about you two, am I right? You don't appear to be looking to tear down what we've built."

"No, of course not. We had no idea this place even existed until now."

"Good, we like to keep a low profile."

"There's still the question of what you two were doing at the theme park? And did you kill all those men?" Daxon asked.

"Look... we don't want any trouble," Dane said. "I'll tell you whatever you want to know, and I can assure you, we're no enemy of yours."

"Why don't you start by telling me more about yourselves and how you came to be standing here in my office?"

Dane contemplated for a moment to gather his thoughts. "Do you know about the fringe?" Dane asked.

"Enlighten me."

"Okay, so the fringe is a term for the low performers in society. The crazy government, known as The Shadow, are on a mission to rid the world of the least productive members of society. This means people with low output, little prospect, small number of family or friends, dissenters, disrupters, the displaced, people who are unhappy or negative. Essentially, people who have been deemed as having low social value."

"Go on," Daxon said, probing further.

"This twisted form of social cleansing has taken smart and honest people like ourselves and have reduced us to a number on a spreadsheet. Sure, we may not contribute to society in the most measurable or meaningful way, but we're still valuable. The fringe, as I am told, are rounded up and led to a slaughterhouse. A group of us were on our way to be killed, but we managed to escape."

"Like a couple of piggies who fell off a wagon?" Daxon said.

"Something like that," Dane replied.

"I'm sorry, I interrupted you. Please continue."

"I'm not sure what else I can tell you," Dane said. "I mean, I can tell you that most people aren't even aware of this policy. From what I know, The Shadow wants to keep the population to a billion, or less, and just keep the best and brightest — those who are deemed to have a high social utility to further progress the species and not overburden the planet of resources."

After a brief explanation, Dane stopped to allow Daxon to process what he had just heard. A look of bewilderment adorned the face of the young leader as he wasn't expecting to hear this news.

"Your story resonates with me," Daxon said, pausing briefly to collect his thoughts. "The vast majority of people who make our community had been displaced in one way or another. Rejected by a society that frankly no longer served them nor fit with their values. So believe me, I get it and am sympathetic to your struggle."

"That's a relief to hear," Dane said with a slight chuckle. "The last group we met wanted to rape her, kill me, then eat us both for dinner."

"That seems like a rude way to treat guests," Daxon said. "But let me ask you, if people, as you say, are largely unaware of this fringe policy," Daxon paused, "how do you know about it?"

"Well, I met a guy who told me."

"You met a guy?" Daxon repeated.

"Yes."

"What guy?"

"He was with us on the bus. Ask Allie, she can verify everything I'm saying."

Daxon looked over at Allie who sat there stoned-faced. She neither confirmed nor denied the claims stated by Dane.

"Allie and I just met each other a few days ago. We were all together."

"You mentioned an escape," Daxon said, continuing with his inquisition. "How did you manage that?"

"The guy I was telling you about, he did it."

"He did what?"

"I don't know. We were all on the bus heading down a highway and all of the sudden the bus just stopped. Then our shackles became unbound. The man told us that we should all run while we still had the chance, so that's what we did."

"Does this man have a name?"

"He goes by Mr. Camouflage."

"Mr. Camouflage?"

"That's what he calls himself — Mr. Camouflage. Ask Allie, she'll tell you the same thing. Isn't that right, Allie?"

Allie didn't move a muscle.

"So you don't know where this bus was headed?" Daxon asked.

"No."

Daxon shifted his attention toward Allie. "Aside from not being Dane's girlfriend, what else can you tell me about yourself?"

"What would you like to know?" Allie replied.

"First, I'd like to know if Dane left out any details that you think are important to the story."

Allie took a moment before answering and said, "No, that's exactly how I remember it."

"How many people were on this bus?" Daxon asked.

"Roughly eighty."

"What happened with the other seventy-eight people?"

"A portion opted to remain behind on the bus. The rest split up into small groups. We suspect some of them were killed," Allie said. "None of us had any idea why we were there or where we were going. All we had was some story by some guy we didn't know."

"Mr. Camouflage?"

"Yes."

"So you decided to leave?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I hedged my bets," Allie stated. "Figured it was the smartest choice to make. Stay and potentially get killed, or leave and potentially not get killed. I chose the latter."

"So everyone scattered in different directions, or did the groups roughly stay together?"

"We broke off into small groups and went our separate ways. The group I was in had about nine people in it, Dane being one of them. We headed into the woods immediately and got as far away from the bus as possible. In the distance we could hear gunfire and imagined the worst. I can only assume there were others who managed to get away, but we haven't run into any of them yet."

"But you did run into some people?" Daxon questioned further.

"Yes," Allie answered directly.

"Tell me about those people."

"Within our small group, we broke off into pairs. I went with this girl named Lauren to search for water. Dane went off with his partner to search for food. Everyone else had their own specific task. Lauren and I spread out and we lost sight of each other. So I went looking for her. When I found her, there were two men attacking her. She looked battered and one of the men was on top of her while the other one stood guard."

"Then what happened?"

"I told the men to stop, they didn't, then the situation escalated."

"Escalated how?"

"It become physical."

"In what way?"

"In a self-defence sort of way. I handled the situation with as much force as necessary to resolve the conflict."

"Look, I'm not here to get you in trouble," Daxon said. "I just want to learn more about your situation and most importantly, how I can help. Okay?"

"Okay."

"So you resolved the situation?" Daxon confirmed.

"I told Lauren to go back to camp while I followed one of the men back to his camp. As it turned out, he was staying in an abandoned theme park with some of his buddies. I didn't know that and got myself into a far more dangerous situation. There were six men looking at me like a pack of wolves looking at a sheep. But I ain't no sheep, so I fought back. Fortunately, Dane had arrived shortly after and helped me."

"I saved her life," Dane chimed in.

"So if I'm understanding you correctly, you single handily took down two men, then the two of you took down another six? All of them armed and dangerous. Do I have that right?"

"Yes."

"No offense to you both, but you don't seem like the type of people capable of doing that. So either you aren't who you claim to be, or you're lying, which one is it?"

"With all due respect, sir," Dane said, "We haven't claimed to be anybody, so it's your own prejudice of who we are and what we're capable of that is the basis of your opinion. And you are basing your judgement on looks alone. But as you probably know, looks can be deceiving."

"Fair point," Daxon said. "Okay then, tell me... who are you?"