Mario "Glorychild (Copilu' Glorios)" Corgea, goes by Glory by everyone who knows him. Or used to know him back home in Constanta, former Romania. Back there, the strong rule now, as they did before the virus. It is still gangs and the mafia that own the settlements just as gangs and mafia owned the country before. Glorychild was well known back in Constanta for being born to one of the most powerful people in the city, Mircea "the Force (Forța)" Corgea. Mircea, fair with his people but cruel with his enemies, didn't have time to look after Glorychild as he was growing up. No parents really do that anymore. Glorychild grew up like all the other kids, running around the streets. But childhood doesn't last long in Constanta - by age 9 Glory learned to point and aim his Makarov at anyone who wanted to take from him or his people. See, Glory always thought that people respected his dad because Mircea always had a way with words. Even when he made people do things they did not want to do, he would put it in such a way that almost made them change their mind. He always listened to people and made them feel heard, in an almost poetic kind of way. But after a few supply runs, raids, and ambushes along his dad, Glory soon realized that it wasn't his father's demeanour that made people follow him. It was the fact that he would do what needed to be done. In the same way he would communicate to his people using the most carefully picked words, he would communicate to his enemies using the most carefully picked pieces to cut off. When I say pieces to cut off I don't only mean important people to be eliminated in rival gangs, I am also talking about body parts. This guy would send people back armless where they came from because they picked the wrong place to scout. Sometimes they would make it back to their settlements to relay the message, most times they just died on the way. But almost never would people come back to retaliate. This is because Mircea came to be known in the area. He had the numbers and he had the means to impose himself.

The city was not his however. Constanta was divided into 4 areas. One was the port side, the side that Mircea owned. The other was the old industrial side, owned by a small but crazy people that called themselves "the Shavers." Mircea was not one to believe in fairness and rules, but even he would agree that these people were absolutely crazy. Too crazy to be predictable, but too drugged out to really want to expand anywhere. They were no threat to anyone as long as they didn't come across them. Then there was the south side. Apartment blocks on apartment blocks. This is where the main problem to Mircea and his people came from. As much as he had the manpower to do so, Mircea never wanted to expand. He saw it as unsustainable, bound to end in a war and division once again. But this problem in the South was know as Dorel "the Knife (Cuțitu')" Sovran. Not only did Dorel reside in the port with Mircea, this guy was Glory's godfather. Mircea and Dorel had a falling out about 2 years after Glory's birth because Dorel kept trying to expand, he wanted the whole city. And so politics ruins everything that is nice. I say this because it came down to a vote. The people were brought to vote for Mircea or Dorel. Mircea saw that Dorel was gaining favour in the city, telling people that nations have to rise again and that the first thing that happens first is for the city to be rebuilt and repopulated. Mircea saw how these illusions of grandeur were starting to gain some people to Dorel's side. Tensions were very high in this debate. On one side people were scared to lose what they already had, and on the other, mostly young guys that didn't have a chance to see much of what the outside was like wanted to conquer more. They felt that expanding would make them stronger. Tensions got so high between the groups that fights would break out. This violence got so bad that one night at the bar, Dorian, one of Dorel's most trusted people, killed a young guy, Andrei, because he made a joke about the expansion project. It was a drunken rage, but a life was taken. That night people came to the streets. Andrei's family demanded Dorian's head. Mircea and Dorel were present as well, and there was more screaming than conversation at this point. What people can vaguely recall from all the chaos of the night was Mircea screaming at Dorel that Dorian must die for peace. But this was someone Dorel saw as his brother, and there was no way he was letting that happen. Mircea, who still had the big majority of people on his side then made the decision that led to all of the further devastation in the city. Pure vote by allegiance. Those that want things to stay as they were are staying by his side and will continue to live in the portside. And those that want to expand can live as they want, but they will have to leave the city. It was either the vote happened that night, or Dorian's life would end. Mircea won by a landslide, and Dorel and the people loyal to him were cast out.

The next part of the story would take a whole book, but it involves Dorel going around the country side and building himself a big enough number of loyal people that he could force himself back in the city he grew up in, Constanta. He took the south side about 8 years after the night where he had to leave. The next 13 years were filled with violence in the city, Dorel never let go of his plan to expand. It became something like a warzone. Raiding, ambushes, you name it, it happened. And when Glory turned about 13 he joined in too. Lives were lost on both sides, and nothing was really gained. The first 2 years were bad, but after it became something of a stale mate. People from both sides knew which area of the city was who's, or close enough to the other's territory to be almost sure they would run into each other. When Glory was about 19, things started to change. Dorel somehow made a new friend. These people were not from the city, and were not even from the area. They called themselves VLF, they were from Varna in former Bulgaria and they decided to help Dorel in exchange for medicine. These weren't any regular people, however. They had access to military equipment. They came in with choppers, military grade assault rifles, they even brought in a tank. The people in Constanta were well armed, but not to this level.

Only disaster followed, but it first came knocking on Dorel's door. VLF acquired enough intelligence on how Dorel and his settlement was set up that taking over became a piece of cake. They brought in the tank to the settlement and pointed the barrel straight towards the biggest residential people full of civilians. And having more than enough men, coordinated the capture of the arms of the settlement with the capture of Dorel and his main guys. They were brought in the main square of the settlement and shot in front of everyone. Both sides spoke a bit of English, but no language was needed for everyone to understand what was going on. A few of the younger guys tried to rebel against the VLF and quickly found the same fate. In hindsight, Dorel's people were lucky, there was not many casualties. Mircea's side didn't have the same fate. They tried to prepare a defence, but there is not much you can do against a tank. Heavily outnumbered and outgunned, the port fell. Many lives were lost, including Glory's both parents. By some miracle, Glorychild managed to escape with a group of 3. They stayed in the area only to later scout it out and find piles of bodies. There was nothing left. The city was taken and pillaged for everything it had. The VLF later left, and so did Glory and the people that escaped. There was nothing to keep them there anymore.

They left and went North, as away as possible from the scene of the massacre. One night on their journey North, they got held up by a group of 3 bandits. Being low on supplies they chose to fight their way out. The fight took 2 people from both sides. Glory survived with Ana, who was badly injured and ended up dying 3 days later. With nobody left and nothing to believe in anymore, Glory continued his journey up north.

He didn't know what he was looking for, maybe a reason to live. With every passing day more and more about life didn't make sense to him. Everything they worked for was gone in an instant, taken away. Glory knew life was just about survival but he thought there was some sense of cosmic justice, some sense of karma in the world. But what is just in what just happened? What was he supposed to take away from it al? With every passing day gloom turned into a hysteria. A kind of humorous look at everything that happened to him. How funny all of it was, especially because none of it made any sense. So the only thing that kept him moving at that point wasn't a false belief that he will find a better place, or a spiritual journey towards any enlightenment. No, it was much more simple for Glory Life for him from that point on would be pure entertainment. What else could happen, where else could he find the irony of life. And his favorite, how did people try to justify their place on the earth and their "goodness."

Many people on his journey noticed his mental state and his apparent hysteria towards life tragedies. Some of them have seen people like that turn into the most evil and twisted, and some disagreed and said that it is just a natural way of coping in a journey of healing. None of that made any sense to Glorychild, but that his life could go in either way made him laugh in his own sick sense of humour.

He was now entering the area of Nyheim. No gun and almost no provisions as he was just robbed recently. Entering the area he felt something he had not felt in his whole journey, and even in his won life. A sense of wonder so strong, and a sense of possibility. Maybe he was ready to make the next step in his life. Maybe he was ready to see which way his life would turn out. Or maybe he was still high from the hallucinogenic mushrooms he ate the night before. Regardless of what it was, he thought he would spend some time here to chase that feeling of wonder.