Utah, Pt. 2 of 3- The Bad

As I mentioned yesterday, Salt Lake City is beautiful, safe and in tact. It astounds and delights me. Outside the great walls erected around the city however, it's at least as terrifying as Las Vegas, perhaps more so.

The lands north of Salt Lake are crawling with sleek predators. Some, I was able to identify, others, I could not even begin to guess at. Wolves, wild dogs and bears abound, as is to be expected, but stranger things lurk in the darkness.

One night, camping, I spotted something up in the trees. Studying it for a time, I made out the outline of a huge cat-creature. I've always liked animals, and read as much as I can on oldworld species. By the spots, and the fact that it lounged on thick branches, I identified the thing as a leopard. But the size made me second guess myself. It was easily four times the size any leopard had the right to be. And indeed, if the forest weren't ancient, with trees of improbable girth, the cat-creature would have a difficult time staying in the branches.

With some research, I was able to piece together a theory on its origin. It seems in 2009-2010, Salt Lake City's Hogle Zoo's animal breeding program met with unprecedented success, especially with their male and female snow leopards. Later, when the Doors of Hell shut and the world plunged into chaos, Paul Roberts, a author and political activist, made his way through Utah on his way to his home town of Las Vegas. While there, he and some followers stormed the Salt Lake Zoo, freeing the animals. The snow leopards, which they kept in abundance, found easy prey in the fat, lazy antelopes, living on Salt Lakes famed Antelope Island.

With a plentiful food source and unlimited territory, these animals grew unchecked.

Animals weren't the only hazard however. On our way from St. George to Salt Lake (both reclaimed territories as well, thought without Salt Lake's electricity) we passed through the city of Hurricane.

For whatever reason, this little rest stop of a town didn't make the cut when the Watchdogs were deciding which cities to reclaim. Riding through town, we noticed activity in several of the houses. It gave me a bad feeling, so I refused to stop and check it out. A good thing, too. About halfway down the main street, the degenerate ghouls poured from every building. We made it out alive, with no one seriously hurt, but we were forced to flee.

It's worth noting that these were not the slow, shambling drug fiends we have in Las Vegas, but deformed, mean-spirited retches, with incredible strength and speed. I believe, the product of a severely restricted gene pool.

Utah, is far from paradise.