The longer you can keep an eye on him the less likely he’ll be sneaking off, maybe you can drum some discipline into his head again too, because apparently he lost some of it. You go to find Jake who’s hanging around the edges of town as usual.

“Hey Jack come here!”
“Aw Dad, I don’t feel like working with you in the boring ol’ computer room right now!”
“Boy, you better get your ass to that computer room!”

Jack follows you in defeat before you embarrass him anymore in front of his friends. When you arrive in the computer room Charles is there. Jack slumps down in a chair next to a console.

“Oh hey there, I didn’t expect to see you both here today.” Charles says unsure of how he’s suppose to respond to this situation.”
“Yeah, well Jack needs to spend some extra time down here, he’s been slackin’ lately.”
“I ain’t been slackin’!” Jake protests.
“You’ve been slackin’! Now check the power systems!”
“(Sigh) Fine! I dunno why we have to do this for; there hasn’t been a problem with this thing for years.”
“Yeah, and it’s gonna STAY that way too! The only reason why we haven’t had problems is because I’m on top of things all the time! If I let this thing go to shit, no more clean water supply for us! Would you like that? Drinking piss water?”
“I know I sure wouldn’t.” Charles mumbles.
“Damnit Dad this is boring! I don’t wanna be doing this shit! I wanna go out an explore the world like Leon!”
“Like Leon huh? In case you’re blind, you’ll notice Leon’s got a missing eye, a missing left ear and pieces of his fingers. That’s what the rest of the world does to you, if you slip up just slightly and nobody’s perfect. Look at Brenda, she’s the best marksperson in this place and she got herself shot in the leg which stopped her from going out. She now walks with a permanent limp! Is that what you want?”
“God you’re a fucking control freak Dad! I thought Mom was bad, but…”

Over the line. That one incurred Jack a wrap to the head.

“DON’T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT YOUR MOTHER THAT WAY!” you bellow as Jack holds his head.
“Um…I think my shift is over, see ya later!” Charles says getting out the way of this family squabble.

The rest of the time in the computer room is silent. Jack doesn’t say anything, he just sullenly does what you tell him. The next day he does the same thing, and the day after that, and so on, until one day he doesn’t. Mainly because he’s run away with some of his friends and stolen Leon’s beat up car. Nina is very distraught along with many other parents. The only thing is that Leon said it doesn’t have that much gas in it because he hasn’t been able to come across any lately.

You, some of the other fathers and Leon go looking for all of them. You first head towards Ashtown thinking that maybe they just went there to be “a little rebellious”. You come across the car, which they obviously abandoned, and continue to Ashtown with hope that Jack still headed that way, but no such luck. When you arrive, the people their say they haven’t seen anyone come by in weeks.

Days go by and at one point Leon thinks he’s got a lead, but then the worst happens. You’re attacked by crazed cannibals and their mutant dogs. You immediately tag one of the cannibals and duck behind a rock. But the cannibals also have guns and while the other fathers have weapons too, they haven’t been practicing with them like you and Leon have. They’re a lot better shots, you see a few of your fellow parents go down for the count, while the dogs finish them off. Leon holds his own, and you and he manage to take out all the cannibals, but it’s the fucking dogs that give you trouble…

Three of them leap onto Leon, knocking his weapon from his hand, he sticks his thumbs in the eyes of the one that tried to take out his throat, but that still doesn’t stop it from biting him in the face before it dies, one is chewing on his chest though and the other one is going to town on his crotch. You’d try to help him, but you got one that came out of nowhere that rips into your leg. You shoot the damn thing in the head three times before it lets go. You then struggle to stand and shoot the other couple dogs, but its too late, Leon’s a mangled corpse.

“FUCK!” you shout in frustration looking at the dead all around you. You collapse to the ground and put your hands on your face thinking about how this got all fucked up and then that’s when you notice the smoke coming from the cannibal camp and the smell of burning flesh. Your heart sinks and you drag yourself over for a closer look.

“No…don’t let it…” you to yourself. You see some bones and clothing. Some on it looks like that of some of the other parent’s kids. You don’t see anything of Jack’s. You don’t know if he got away, or they ate him and threw the clothing elsewhere or what. Somehow it doesn’t really matter; you haven’t found him, so for all intents and purposes he’s dead or at best; missing.

After grabbing all the remaining water you can from the others you make the long painful journey back to New Haven, thinking about what you’re going to tell everyone. Much has been lost this day.

When you get back you collapse again, this time you feel a fever. Brenda and Kyle immediately see to you. It’s your leg, its festering and infected from the mutant dog bite. Nothing can be done; you get it chopped off at the knee. The only good thing is you were unconscious at the time.

After you get over the initially shock of waking up to a peg leg, you only have more bad news for everyone, especially Nina. However, many lives of husbands and children have been lost and someone MUST take the blame. And that someone happens to be you just because you happened to be the lucky one to come back alive.

Nina is voted out of her position on the council for some made up reason which you protest loudly, but it hardly bothers her since she’s been preoccupied ever since you came back with the bad news. She holds on to sanity by making herself believe that Jack DID escape and is somewhere out there wandering the world.

They can’t get rid of you so easily since even with Charles around you’re still the only guy who can keep the computer system running everything working right, but most of the population sure gives you a hard time. If you weren’t walking around on a fucking peg, you’d start kicking some ass. As a few years goes by, finally you get sick of the shit and say:

“Fuck it. Let ‘em rot. They can run this shit themselves, this place is getting dead anyway. Nina, we’re going to Ashtown.”
“Ashtown? But that’s so far away! And you’re walking on that peg!”
“I didn’t mean go right this minute or by ourselves, I meant the next trade caravan from Ashtown that comes by we’re tagging along with it.”
“We’re just going to pick up and leave? Just like that? After all these years?”
“Hey, I don’t like it either, but its obvious all of our efforts weren’t ever appreciated here. Yours OR mine. Since they hate us so much, then let ‘em live here without our help. There’s nothing for us here now. All we got left is each other.”

Nina agrees and holds you tightly while telling you how much she loves you.

When the Ashtown caravan comes around you and Nina have all your stuff packed. They’re only too happy to take you with them, since Ashtown has been trying to get a couple old generators working to maximum efficiency and they heard you were good at that sort of thing.

You spend your remaining life in Ashtown. It isn’t as secure in safety as it was in New Haven, but at least you had Nina to make it equally as comfortable.