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Though many more nuclear weapons were used by the Chinese Federation on the Northern US, the ZR-5 Bombs employed by the South American Empire and African Federation on the South inflicted a different kind of destruction. While no radiation was emitted by these bombs, their atmosphere destroying properties leaves much of the US from Tennessee downwards scorching hot during the winter on a good day. While still inhabitable, even the toughest desert dragons have difficulty with the heat.

We ended up passing three days in that old Walmart, for two reasons mainly. For one, the blizzard picked up worse and worse, eventually whiting out so badly that not even the Excursion's lights could pierce the blackness, and for two, it took Zack that long to fill the thing's 50 gallon tank. The smell of burning propane and freshly cooked diesel could make anyone thoroughly sick, and for Nero and Mya, that happened to be the case. They stayed far away from Zack's still, far enough that someone always had to go with them and since Shannon really couldn't stand the smell either, she watched them. Ben and Nat were spending every minute they could together, making up for lost time I guess, couldn't say I blamed them, though I wondered, if Ben was here, and I'd found a note in his handwriting on the dead animal at the edge of Ground Zero, then who the fuck was that animal? While that question may well never be answered, I was happy for Nat. With Ben around, she was able to sleep again, and sleep she did, for almost the entirety of the two days we were shut up inside that Walmart. During that time, we also witnessed Nat's mutation take itself a couple of steps further. The Corium inside her body began to change from the thicker, obviously liquid metal state, to a state that looked to be about half as thick as water. Eirren had left one of our Geiger's on by mistake, and Nat just walking by it fried it like a piece of bacon, causing the actual detection element to go up in a small explosion. More puzzle pieces began to fall into place, but I still couldn't comprehend why the radiation didn't seem to bother the Excursion, Zack's Cybernetics, or any of our equipment other than our Geiger counter's for that matter.

I spent some of the two days getting to know Benjamin as well. He and Nat had both been born in Scotland, and Ben had spent time in the military during some of the worst fighting in the war and certainly carried himself like he was combat proficient. He was blind in his left eye due to being shot in the head by an African soldier while he was riding on a tank in the Gobi Campaign, and shortly after that he and Nat had moved to the UK, where they stayed for an entirety of a month before they moved to America.

"And the rest I'm sure Nat has already told you", Ben told me one morning as we were loading up the Excursion. The sun was out for the first time since the first snow fall. It had no power this time of year as far as heat went, still easily 20 below outside, but damn was it nice. There was a stiff breeze that made it feel like it was 40 below, but the sky was just...so clear. Clearest I think I'd ever seen a sky.

"Sometimes she'll hand out a little piece, but other than that she hardly talks about the past", I told him as we stuffed all the bedding we'd been using into a space bag and used the vacuum in the back of the Excursion to suck out all the air, "other than that she says nothing and we don't ask. I blame Medusa."

"Corium is a hell of a drug my brother", Benjamin said tracing the gash that ran across his neck and face, "I just brushed past the outskirts of the blast radius and stepped on a small piece. Just when I think it's healing up, I wake up the next morning and I'm putting out more radiation and the tear in my flesh has grown."

"Nat's been getting more radioactive lately too", I said, "I suspect that stress and emotion might have something to do with it, though I can't prove it. I'll tell you what though, until I met Nat, I thought mutation by radiation that was helpful was Hollywood."

"Well, you only gotta look at Rabids to call bullshit on that", Ben smiled as I shut the gate of the Excursion, everything neatly organized and packed away, with plenty of space to spare.

"I wouldn't call Rabies helpful", I said, "on what planet is being a flesh craving salt addict helpful?"

"Got me there brother", Ben shrugged, "by the way, I haven't had a chance to thank you for taking the only female I've ever loved away from Medusa's grip."

"I don't think I did. Medusa seems to have laid a curse on her, and I guess by extension, you as well. It'll never let go", I told him, "but, what's done is done I think. She's family, and now, you are too."

Ben smiled, "you don't know how much it means to me to hear you say that. We can never replace what Medusa took from us, but hell...I guess this is a start."

"They'll be waiting for you brother", I said, "God knows my brother or sister is."

"I won't pry", Benjamin said.

"We got everything?", Eirren said as she joined us, "should be an easy day if the weather stays like this."

"First time I've seen blue sky in a while", Nat said affixing her helmet to her suit, "hey Ari, how much land you wanna take down today?"

"Much as we can", I said, "Who knows what crazy routes we'll have to take around wrecked cars and bandit barricades."

"Don't forget we're still deep in Rabid country", Benjamin added adjusting something on his gear.

"Can't", I said, "not unless you wanna die."

We piled into the Ford. It hadn't run in a few days, and since it had been cold, I was wondering what had been going on in the tank as Zack's Diesel Juice had been allowed to mix with what we had left of the real thing. I pushed the clutch, put the shifter in neutral and gave the key a turn. The engine spun and coughed for maybe ten seconds before finally coming to life. With the clutch still held in, I gave it a few revs to get the oil and other fluids flowing. The Excursion blew a thick black smog all over the inside of the Walmart and soon was settling into it's 450 RPM idle. I navigated the Trip menu to find distance to empty, which was now sitting right at 1500 miles.

"So far so good", I said putting the Ford in first. I pulled the Ford out from the lobby of the Walmart and drove it through the parking lot, taching all the way out to the 6500 RPM limit of the transmission and almost to seven k before I shifted gears. The turbocharger blew off, according to the monitor, 450 pounds of boost and the engine burped up a cloud of smog blacker than anything I had ever seen.

"Man this stuff burns filthy", I noted as I turned out of the Walmart parking lot.

"You'd think but it really doesn't", Zack said, "it's really dark and there's a lot of it, but that smog isn't really that dirty. I got animals at the SI stations telling me they'd never seen exhaust so clean and I used to have a big Dually that would blow a cloud twice as thick whenever I downshifted."

"Not supposed to downshift an automatic", Benjamin said, "it'll screw up your gears."

"It wasn't an automatic, was a 7 speed dogleg", Zack said, "put it in myself."

"Was hard to get a truck in a manual", Ben said, "dealer didn't want to sell me my Frontier in a manual because he didn't understand why I wanted it."

"I'll never forget that day", Nat shook her head, "guy was itching to make a sale, Ben just about had him on his knees when we got up to leave."

"Same thing happened to me when I bought my Honda", I said, "damn I would have given my left nut for that car to have still been running when I started this trip."

"EMP kill it?", Ben asked.

I nodded, "NYC nuke that did it in. EMP was just strong enough to fry the ECU. Was lights out for my little Civic."

"Was the same story with my Frontier", Ben said, "was already dead when I made it back to the airport."

"How did you make it back to Vermont in the first place?", Nat asked.

"After you called and told me the nukes were coming, there was one flight that was going out to Washington. I tried to change tickets with the idea that once I made it into Washington, I could get someone else to get me on a private plane home, or rent a car or something. Well, they tell me, sorry sir, you can't change tickets. I went back and forth for ten minutes which ended in them calling security. So the M16 came out and believe me when I tell you, once that switch went from Safe to Burst, they listened when I told them I was getting on that fucking plane."

"Did you make it?", Nat asked.

Ben shook his head, "no. The ICBM landed first. I remember seeing the flash and waking up with burnt and soggy clothes from the rain. Was hurting pretty badly and had some glass in various limbs, but otherwise was okay. My only objective after that was to get home. Didn't think any cars were going anywhere, and since the plane was twisted scrap metal, all I could do was pick up the M16, load a 40 in the tube and start huffing it."

"You telling' me you walked from Alaska to Vermont?", I asked shifting gears.

Ben nodded, "built my own team in that time. Friends I'll never forget, I owe them a debt I'll never beable to repay."

"What happened to them?", I asked.

"We went our separate ways", Ben said, "they headed for Eire, a colony near the Great Lakes, farming community."

"You happen to meet a dragon named Khen in the past few weeks?", Nat asked.

Ben nodded, "did you know him?"

"He and the Scorpion James are the only reasons I didn't go fucking insane in the years following Medusa. Only reason I'm alive is because Khen caught me with a gun in my mouth and knocked me out with a lead pipe to the back of the head."

Ben put his paw on his mate's shoulder, "I'm here now."

Nat smiled and took it, "I know."

"We'll see them again love."

"I know."

Ben and Nat didn't say really anything for a long while after that. With help from Eirren, I dug our way through Harrisburg's back roads. We followed Greyson road until it merged into Paxton street, at the end of which we took a left turn, then a right turn back onto Highway 322. The Ford lurched rudely as we turned onto the the Highway because I had to shift in the middle of the turn and blew a cloud of thick black smog as I drove it back to speed. Highway 322 eventually led to an exit onto Interstate 83, which, while packed in the lane's out of the city, was barren on the two lanes that led deeper into Harrisburg, so that was the one we were taking. The only problem was that the access to that lane was blocked by cars in the get the hell out of dodge lane and the ones blocking us in question were small sedans. The Ford was no monster truck as far as height went, but given the fact we'd already pulled a ten ton concrete barricade out of the ground with little effort, I didn't doubt it's capability to push the old rusty heaps out of the way. So, with caution in my head, I slowed down to a near crawl and just barely touched the deer guard to the front and back of two of the offending vehicles and gave the gas a little nudge. The Ford shoved the two cars out of the way with about as much difficulty as a steamroller has squashing a beetle, that's to say that the two old rusty cars just fell apart from the push. The Ford slid past them easily and soon we were doing 80 down I83, and just as quickly slowing back down to go through another clogged section on I-83, which had already become I-76.

"Turn up here", Eirren pointed to an Exit. I turned on the blinker and took the Ford down an off ramp which merged onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike, taking us towards an almost mile long bridge that went across Calver Island and the Susquehanna River, most of which still looked fairly clean, even though it was covered in ice and snow from the recent blizzards.

"Cool!", Mya grinned as she peered out the window from the back seat, "I'm up for a swim."

"Looks clean but it's probably still radioactive", Zack smiled, "even if it was clean, that's all ice and snow on the banks, which means that the water is even colder than that."

"Hey, if I knew it was gonna be 130 degrees later today?", Shannon said, "I'd jump in that water even if I knew I'd get hypothermia, which I would. Summer was brutal this year."

"Winter ain't been much better", I said, "if I wasn't cold blooded I might not mind the fact that it's cooled off so much. I can barely stay active during summer nights, much less any time in the winter."

"Same here", Eirren said, "Summer gives me hell because I'm a forest dragon, and then winter gives me even more hell for the same reason."

"Man it's shit like that that make's me glad I grew up as a Tribal", Zack said, "cold doesn't bother me a bit."

"You were a tribal?", Shannon asked.

Zack nodded, "till I was about fifteen. My shiver migrated to land when other Southern's fished us out of our area, don't even think they realized they did it. Some others I knew would debate me till the day they died, but they could never prove it was done purposefully to get us onto land."

"Shannon, listen very carefully to what he's saying", I said, "he was a tribal, he is also a shark."

Shannon shook her head, "what are you implying?"

"Sharks live in the water", Nat said, "other than trash that get's dumped, there's no way to get fabric in the ocean."

Shannon looked like she was trying to piece the puzzle together for about five or six seconds before the lightbulb came on and she finally understood what we were hinting at.

"Ohhh", She grinned looking towards Zack, "I get what they're saying."

"Thanks for putting that image in her head guys", Zack said kicking the back of my seat, "as if I didn't already have problems with females fighting over me."

"What females?", Nat asked looking towards Zack, "seventy five percent of the girls in this truck are spoken for, the only one remaining hasn't even known you for a week yet."

"Well", Shannon said, "far as I care, knowing Zack for a week is long enough to do this."

It seemed like Zack might have tried to react, but before he could even turn his head, Shannon turned it around and kissed him for about half a minute straight. Zack seemed incredibly surprised at first, but then shrugged and just went with it. There was obviously hushed snickering and laughter on all of our parts, while Nero and Mya just seemed disgusted.

"Yuck", Mya scowled, "nasty."

"Wait till you get a little older Mya", Shannon smiled leaning into Zack's shoulder, "you'll start to understand why grown ups do this."

"Doubtful", Mya said.

Shannon shook her head. She looked like she might have something smart to say, but decided to keep it under raps, for now at least. I ended up following the Pennsylvania Turnpike for about 18 miles until I found the exit for I-81, which I took. I-81 was one of the cleanest routes we had through the country towards Texas. I didn't expect it to be too cluttered, because after the nukes fell, no one was really able to leave where ever they had been due to radiation, plus soldiers trying to keep order. I didn't expect to see much of anything other than Rabids, or perhaps Demons, depending on if they had sprung up in other places other than the far north, but I was glad we were getting down into more rual area's now. Away from the heavily bombed north, the wasteland was, well still a wasteland, but now that we were slowly approaching the border's of Rabid country, I kind of felt a weight off my shoulders. We still had a long way to go, but I suspected that with the population density decreasing the further away from the big liberal cities we got, the fewer problems we could have with Rabids. Long as we stayed far, far away from the coast, we'd be fine.

"Finally on 1-81", I sighed aloud as I drove the Ford up the entrance ramp, "and not a moment too soon. By nightfall we should be able to clear Rabid Country."

"So long and good riddance", Zack commented, "tired of insomnia worrying about those damn things."

"Don't think we won't be seeing more of them", Shannon said.

"Oh I know we'll be seeing more of them, but with any luck we won't be seeing hardly as many", Zack returned, "tired of dealing with those damn things."

"Yeah well, the relief from Rabids might just be replaced with having to deal with an environment about ten times worse than what we've seen", I added, "I heard a lot about the Southern US wastelands from Overwatch's TV operator. He was talking about just how...empty, everything gets the further south you go. The heat, the silence and the bright sun just kills even the hardest survivors. Way he was talking made me think that nothing survived further south, which doesn't make any sense to me, since more bombs were dropped further north in the US rather than down south."

"I've heard rumors about the Southern US Wastelands", Eirren said, "sane animals might be few and far between these days, but word does travel quickly just the same. Before Mark died, we had an older squirrel, ex marine or something, come up from Nevada, said he was heading for the East Coast of the North Pole, something about a refuge there. Man did he have a story to tell. Just that he felt like he was in hell because he never saw another living animal when he was out there. I told him I thought Canada was an empty hell hole and he about died laughing. Hunter's got in deep to some seriously terrifying shit over the years, but I don't think I've ever seen a reptile literally turn white, but when that guy started laughing he did. In the past month, I've dealt with Rabids trying to chew my face off, the demons, Medusa and hell, even coming with in a literal inch from being raped to death by bandits. There aren't words to describe the fear I felt when that guy just started laughing."

"Doesn't sound so bad", Nat shrugged, "he should have met Medusa."

"Medusa didn't scare me as much as that guy's laugh did", Eirren said, "he just found it so hysterical."

"You sure he wasn't just baked from the heat?", Ben asked, "summer this year was savage."

"Positive", Eirren said, "you should have been there."

"I guess we'll see once we get there", I sighed leaning against the door.

The hours passed as I drove down I-81, occasionally changing lanes to get out of the way of old rusted cars and large pieces of derbies. Morning past and afternoon came. Travel had been somewhat uneventful, until I heard a very loud gurgling sound coming from the back of the Ford. At first, I wasn't sure what it was and kind of just shrugged it off, but then about ten minutes later I heard it a second time and realized it was someone's stomach.

"Whose' stomach is that?", I asked glancing back.

"Sorry Dad", Nero said, "I'm starved. Can we stop for lunch?"

"I agree with the little dude", Shannon said, "I'm so used to walking everywhere that my knees feel like they're burning."

"I'm startin' to hurt a bit too", Benjamin said adjusting his harness.

"My wings though", Eirren said shifting in her seat.

I shook my head, "how come all you joint pain sufferers ain't said nothing sooner?"

No answer, I sighed, "okay, first rest stop we find we'll stop. I'm not just pulling over on the side of the road."

About forty minutes passed after that. I could see a rest stop just off an exit a ways up the road, and since I was starting to hurt a little myself, we pulled over. The rest stop had four, brown brick buildings in an L configuration. There was a small parking lot in front with a steel wire fence that had long dead flowers planted underneath it for decoration. There were several dead Oak trees planted around the area for shade and there was a wooden bridge covered by a metal awning that went right to the front door. There were several old and rusted cars in the parking lot along with a Semi Trailer that wasn't hauling anything. The curtains were drawn, guessed that the driver had gone to sleep and never woken up. I drove along side a side walk that was beside a picnic table and put the Ford in park, letting the engine wind down. Buckles clanked as harnesses came undone and the sounds of cracking bones as animals that had spent the last three years walking everywhere emerged from their first long car ride in a while.

"Argh", Eirren said as we emerged from the heated confines of the Ford's interior out into the frozen, quiet wasteland, "forgot how cramped car rides could be."

"Whose cooking lunch?", Nat asked taking off her helmet and setting it in her seat. White smoke was slowly shimmering off her blackened fur and skin, the Corium gashes in her neck and head glowing even brighter than they normally did. Seemed like the further we went, the more radioactive she became and I wondered if Benjamin would as well, only time would tell I guessed.

Shannon and Zack agreed to make lunch. They dug the stuff out of the Ford and set up on a picknick table near by, Benjamin and Nat sat down on a bench watching Nero and Mya play in the snow, while Eirren and I went off to take a look around the rest stop. The central building was old school, built mostly out of hand lain bricks on the outside, but the inside of the domed structure was all modern. It appeared to be mostly rolled aluminum that was simply very well sanded with clear coat applied. There was a giant fan made of an air plane propeller hanging silently from the ceiling that was flanked by a circle of lights that appeared to be made out of old air plane parts as well. Fake potted plants were still standing, faded, but still standing, at both the front and back entrances. The welcome and information desks were to our right along with the facility offices while the vending machine area and restrooms were to our left. A bulletin broad with long broken glass held torn shreds of maps and flyers while the vacant spot next to it suggested someone had made off with a water fountain, odd thing to steal. A coffee table made from half of an old turbine engine sat in the middle of the room with furniture all around it, two three person cloth couches on on either end, with three living room chairs on the left and right sides each. The table was piled with magazines and newspapers, including one that was dated to 2005 and titled, "African Soldiers Crush American Resistance at Chad Border."

"That was the quickest fight of the war", I sighed picking up the news paper, recalling hearing about the battle on the news, "everyone called the Landship an obsolete trinket from WW1", I shook my head, "I got my wish."

"What wish?", Eirren asked.

"Well, I'd always wanted to see a British Landship built with modern technology dual an M2 Abrams. Got my wish, just, not the way I would have liked. I guess the Landship was never really dead, just asleep. Needed someone to come along and wake it up."

"How many animals did the African's kill that day?", Eirren asked, "what like a thousand?"

"Try two thousand, and still they cried that we were in the wrong", I shrugged tossing the paper down, "fuck I'm glad Taro jumped ship when he did."

"Taro?", Eirren asked.

"Good friend of mine, career soldier. Spent some time inside during the cease fire, but they discharged him after a convoy he was with was ambushed by South American forces and wiped out. Said he wasn't fit for service any more because he lost a degree of motion in his right arm or some shit like that."

"Seems like a nit picky thing to kick someone out of service on", Eirren said.

I shrugged, "can't say. I was never army material."

"What makes you say that?", Eirren asked.

"I didn't like the idea of being expendable", I said, "soldiers aren't just something you can toss away when your done with it. If I was commander in chief of any armed force, I would approach every situation with the idea that any causality is unacceptable. Animals just fight better when they know their higher ups will take care of them, at least, I'd think so. I might just be making that up."

"Could have fooled me", Eirren said.

"On what?", I asked.

"That you weren't Army material", She said.

"I'm not."

"You've got two Veterans that take orders from you don't you?", she asked, "two vets that fought in some of the most bloody conflicts of the war I might add."

I shrugged, "I couldn't tell you why, not sure they could either. Just cause two of our friends trust me to lead the group doesn't make me army material."

Eirren shook her head, grinned and let her Ak fall to her side and put her arms around me.

"Let me explain something to you dude", she grinned, "You're keeping together a team of traumatized survivors of a nuclear war that have blown up, shot at, stabbed, poisoned, lost loved ones and other wise suffered at the hands of the country we all used to call home, half of us use Armalites, the other half use Kalashnikovs and one's got a Hi-point. Two of us use Quad Rail, two use Key Mod and then you and I use M-Lok and Magpul, yet somehow none of us have killed each other over our preferred weapons systems. And to top it all off, everyone here aside from maybe you have PTSD in some form or another. This is a tinder box of a crew you've got going here, yet somehow you have successfully managed to keep even the smallest spark away from it."

I grinned, "oh come on, get to the point already."

Eirren shook her head, smiling at me, "You were supposed to respond with something insightful. Way to ruin the moment jackass. Point is, you keep this team together and more or less sane, and you got me to fall for you, even after the rush of the night we met had died off. Must be doing something right, now kiss me."

"Why the hell not?", I smiled.

And so we did, for about five minutes, only stopping when I heard I heard Nat's heavy boots on the floor of the building.

"Hey, if you two love birds can pull away from each other for five seconds, there's another car coming down the road."

Eirren and I followed Nat out of the building. Zack, Shannon and Benjamin were crouched behind a low concrete wall that was mainly for decoration, but could be used as cover as well if the situation called for it, with their weapons trained at the road.

"How far away is it?", I asked.

"About a mile or so up the road", Benjamin said, "coming fast though, soon as I have a clear shot I'll hit it with a 40mm."

"No, save that shot", I said, "let's try and keep a low profile for now. They may just drive right past us."

"Unless they need gas. I know it goes bad after three years, they might not", Ben added.

"Fair enough, but don't open fire unless I give the say so", I said as I ducked down behind the same wall with them, keeping my eyes on the car that was slowly coming up the road. Soon I realized it was a newer model Chevy SS. It had certainly seen it's better days, obviously, but seemed like it was still very well put together. I saw the turn signal come on. The Sedan slowed down and turned into the rest stop from the other side of the road, parking behind the Ford. The engine died and three animals got out, a Rabbit, Hawk and a Mouse. They were all armed AR-15s that appeared to be police duty rifles. They were wearing police belts that held what police belts normally would, but other than that they were dressed rather normally for kids their age.

"They're just kids...", Benjamin whispered over the radio.

"I've seen what "kids" can do", Shannon said, "we should just slot 'em."

"Not yet", I said, "let's see what they do."

"Ah fresh air", the mouse said, "well, fresh as you can get."

"So glad we're in Pennsylvania now", the hawk sighed, "we could be in DC by night fall."

"Assuming we can find clear roadways", the Rabbit said, "and assuming our luck holds out."

"It will", the Rabbit said, "it has to...or else Simon died for nothing."

Silence fell over the group for a moment, then the Mouse spoke again, "let's just drain the cars and get back on the road. I don't wanna attract undue attention."

The hawk opened the back of their Chevy and started digging around in the back, while the other two went up to investigate our lunch on the camp stove, which was now beginning to burn. Even though we were laying behind a wall not 20 feet from him, he didn't see us, and somehow none of them smelled us.

"Hey Kayla, work quick", the mouse said returning to the group, "someone's cooking lunch over here. When they smell it burning they'll come running to stop it. I don't wanna be here when they do."

"Yeah yeah", the Hawk said. She came up from underneath the trunk lid with a sharpened screwdriver, a rubber mallet and a 3 gallon bucket. She walked up to the Ford and put the bucket right underneath the gas tank as the other two started undoing the cans of diesel tied to the back.

"Time to do something?", Benjamin asked.

"Time to do something", I agreed, "hey, you kids punch a hole in the tank of that Excursion you'll be eating bullets."

All three immediately regrouped and pointed their weapons in the direction of my voice, "show yourself coward! Hands in the air when you do!"

All six of us rose from behind our hiding spot with our rifles raised, the looks on their faces told me they realized they didn't have much of a chance, but stood defiantly anyway, probably thought we were bandits.

"Guns down", the rabbit ordered, "now."

I shook my head, "ain't gonna happen kid."

"Do it or we'll kill you!", the hawk shouted.

"You'll lose that fight", Zack said, "we've come too far to let a couple of kids punch a hole in our gas tank. Touch that Ford we'll mop you. There's six of us and three of you, and we know how to use ours."

The standoff lasted about four minutes, soon, it became clear to all of us that they were sure that we'd kill them if they slipped, so I looked up from my optic.

"Tell you what, sling 'em, we sling ours. You've got my word on that."

"Yeah fuckin' right", the mouse said, "soon as we sling ours you kill us. We're not falling for that a second time."

"I know saying not everyone is out to kill you is a suicidal thought these days", Shannon said lowering her Hi-Point, but not everyone is out to kill you."

The kids looked at each other, but kept their guns up, for a moment at least, then they lowered them.

"This is stupid", the Mouse said as we lowered ours as well.

"Nah", I said as Zack and Shannon went back to work, "we like to operate on a system of neutral till proven hostile. Gotten us this far, Arien."

I offered my paw, the mouse accepted, "Mike. That's Kayla and Thomas."

"From what I overheard, you guys are down an animal, care to explain what happened?"

"Bandits", Mike said, "they presented themselves in much the same way you guys did, said the same shit, but the second our guns were down they rushed in and attacked us. Simon killed himself with a grenade to get them so we could get away. Morale hasn't been high sense then."

"I get ya", I said, "trust me I do. By the way, our Ford there is a Diesel, if you had filled your tank with that your car would have died."

"Thanks for the tip I guess", The Mouse said, "can you help us fill up? It'd be worth some ammunition and MRE"s to us."

"Always willing to help out when I can", I said putting my rifle in the Ford. I helped Mike fill his car's tank, and as we were topping it off I turned to him.

"So you guys are headed up to DC huh?", I asked.

"We've got some friends up there", Mike said, "we've been in contact with them with our Sat Phone and once we arrive we're all going to Eire together, I heard there's a settlement up there from a trader that came through my town in Nevada about a year ago. Once we're there, we'll rally at his place and we'll all go to Eire in his big Semi Trailer. Big enough to hold all of us way he talked about it."

"Good luck man. Just having a vehicle that works these days puts a giant fucking target on your back."

"No shit", Mike said.

"By the way, if you're headed for Eire, try to avoid the big cities as best you can. You know what a Rabid is?"

"Never heard of it", Mike said.

"A Rabid is exactly what it sounds like, a Rabid animal", I said, "after the war a mutated Rabies virus spread like the second plague. Infected are crazy, salt deprived flesh addicts who will just as soon kill you as look at you. Just about everything from the tip of Maine down to around West Virginia and Virginia is their turf, and the fuckers are EVERYWHERE, I assure you. We massacred an entire town of them about three days ago when they tried to mug us."

Mike sighed as he caped the gas, "damn. Well...since you shared some Information, I guess I can too. Be careful the further south you go. Once you get to the edge of either of the Virginias, the snow stops and the real desert starts, it was about 120 degrees this morning and our car overheated three times in the span of an hour. You can't really drive most of the day because of the heat but you can't really walk either. I'd tell you to travel at night, but that's not really such a good idea either because your truck's engine and headlights could give away your position. I would suggest traveling three hours before dawn, and three hours before dusk. Spend the hottest and brightest parts of the day under cover and immobile, otherwise, you and your truck will run out of water fast. You'll never see another living soul either, everyone down south is either dead or a Demon. You know about them?"

I nodded and sighed a long sigh, "son of a bitch."

"I thought you should know."

"I'll figure it out", I told him. I offered to let him eat lunch with us, which of course he accepted and we all ate underneath a covered area, telling stories of life pre and post war. Mike and them discussed their plans once they got to Eire, while I told them my plans once I got home to Texas. They thought we were crazy for wanting to go to Texas in the state it was in, but I told them I didn't care. I had a working knowledge of HVAC from my job pre-war, so I figured if I could find a rental or a package unit, I could probably plug it in and make it work, but I guessed I'd have to wait and see. After lunch was cleaned up, we went our separate ways. As I turned the Ford back onto I-81 and went right, Mike and his friends went left, their Chevrolet SS slowly disappearing into the afternoon sun. I mulled over in my head how to let my friends know about the fact that apparently, we were exchanging Rabid Country for Demon country.

Eventually, after about another hour of driving, I spoke up.

"So. I've been thinking over the last hour and a half about how to tell you guys this", I said.

"That doesn't sound good", Eirren said.

"If what Mike told me is credible, then we're headed into Demon country", I said.

Silence fell over Ford for a bout ten minutes, then, Zack spoke up.

"Well, I figured they had to have come from somewhere, seems like a long way for just a few of them to wander though."

"Shannon", I thought aloud, "your a vet, is it possible that Demons are a result of Rabies in dragons? It didn't occur to me until just now that I'd never seen a Rabid reptile."

"I don't know hardly anything about this strain of Rabies Arien", Shannon said, "I couldn't tell you. I mean, I suppose it's possible."

"Does it matter where they come from?", Benjamin asked, "what in the fuck even is a Demon?"

"I think they're Rabid dragons", I said, "they look like scaleless dragons as a general rule, and their skin, at least in the ones I've seen, is usually cracked and bleeding. I don't know what makes them so damn tough, a guy named Will, the guy with the Ford before us, hit one at 150 miles an hour and then shot it through the eye with a dragon's breath round. It took ten minutes for it to die after that."

"Sounds like this Will guy is a fantastic liar", Ben said.

"Far from it love", Nat said, "we had to unload magazines of punishment and disembowel the ones we met to kill them. Arien butchered one of them, disemboweled the second and then Eirren blew the head off that one and a third one. Trust me Ben...he's not making this up."

"So we're headed from Rabid Country to Demon country huh?", Zack asked, "So, why not just live out of the truck 'till we get to Texas?"

"What do you mean?", Shannon asked.

"I mean we don't stop. The only time we stop the truck from the moment we enter demon country till the moment we hit Arien's place is to gas up or eat. Not for anything else."

"Yeah...about that."

"What do you mean about that?", Zack asked, "I fucking hate that phrase. Almost as bad as the word should."

"Mike also told me that you can only really travel six hours out of the day, three before dawn and three before dusk. During the day he said his car overheated three times in the span of an hour. Can't travel at night because the engine noise alerts all the Demons in the area. I figure there must be a lot of them for him to warrant mentioning it."

We drove on for about ten more minutes, eventually hitting the Pennsylvania state border, crossing into West Virginia.

"We did a state", Eirren smiled, "if I didn't know what was coming, I might actually be happy."

In that time. I had been doing some thinking, thinking that maybe my dad was right, maybe I had made a mistake when I walked out. I supposed, I had come this far, but I'd also had a ton of close calls and almost died a few times in ways that would have left me in serious agony until I eventually bled to death. I hadn't had a doubt in my mind that I was doing what I needed to do by heading home, but now, having Mike's information in my head, every inch that the Ford traveled was one more inch we had to cover to head back home. I was so busy arguing with myself that I didn't even notice what was going on up ahead until Eirren grabbed my shoulder.

"ARIEN STOP THE TRUCK!", she shouted.

"What, what what!?", I asked snapping back to reality as I slammed on the brakes, causing the Ford to come to a sudden halt.

Eirren pointed. An overpass that stretched all the way over I-81 had about a dozen bodies hanging from it. I didn't think that the animals responsible were around any more, and I supposed if they were, I could just mat it.

"What's the game plan boss?", Zack asked.

"I'll drive you shoot", I said starting forward again. I didn't let off of the accelerator until we were well clear of the over pass, turned out that there wasn't anyone lying in wait to ambush us, which was good, but better safe then sorry. The driving continued for another five or six hours. We stopped a couple of times for bathroom brakes and to stretch, but other than that it was all the same, uneventful interstate travel after which most of my friend's had fallen asleep, their firearms still in their laps. The sun had gone down, and the scenery was slowly beginning to shift. Less snow, dead trees and somewhat normal looking buildings, to more hardpacked sand, burnt buildings and a clear sky. The thermostat on the Ford's touch screen had slowly risen throughout the course of the day, eventually rising to over 70 degrees, nice enough I had put my window down. I looked at the clock, 8PM, could keep going I supposed, but I was getting tired, so the first house I ran across, we pulled in.

The old, single story house was just about a perfect square, with the exception of a small, three sided porch that jutted out from the front door and enclosed a small area of patio that had a small brick walkway out to the dirt driveway. The house was constructed largely of old wooden planks that had been dried and burnt from the many years of wasteland abuse. Sand was piling against the lower parts of the house and against the garage door, enough so I didn't even want to try and put the Ford into the garage, but I would anyway just so it wouldn't get stolen. The old attic fans atop the house were so rusted they would only budge a little bit in either direction, and squeak loudly when they did. The windows on all sides of the house had been covered with sheets of plywood and two by fours with signs that read "you loot we shoot". The landscaping in front of the house was long since dead and gone, only a sandy bed outlined with black rocks where it'd once been. An old stove pipe, about as badly rusted as the attic fans, and an old and decaying chimney also rose from the roof. The roof itself had shingles missing, quite a few of them, but it didn't look like anything that would compromise the integrity of the house. I pulled the Ford to a stop in the road, put it in reverse and backed into the driveway, the change in motion waking everyone except Zack and Shannon. I put the Ford in park and rubbed my eyes.

"We stopping for the night?", Eirren asked.

"Yeah", I said, "let's sweep and clear this house, put the Ford in the garage and call it a night."

Nat stirred Zack and Shannon, "Guys."

"Hmm?", Shannon asked, lifting her head from Zack's shoulder.

"Get up, we're gonna sweep this house and stop for the night", Eirren said grabbing her AK.

"Got it", Shannon said stirring Zack. We disembarked the truck, our weapons ready and approached the door of the house, us on one side and the girls on the other. I tried the knob, it was unlocked. Standing back up against the wall, I counted down.

"Three, two, one."

I flung open the door and Eirren rushed inside first, followed by myself, then Nat, Benjamin, Shannon and then Zack. We found that the main hallway led immediately into the kitchen, which was wide and spacious. A counter formed an L shape against the wall with a door that lead into, at least from here, an empty garage. Another row of counters was directly above it, only broken by the kitchen window. An island with four chairs at it rested in the middle of the kitchen, with the old chimney dividing the kitchen and the living room. Two couches were against the back wall with fake potted plants and book shelves in the corner. An old rusting metal coffee table was in front of the couches and two black leather recliners rounded out the room quite nicely. The hallway then branched off into four other rooms, which the others split off to go check.

"Clear", I hear Shannon call.

"Clear", Benjamin said.

"No contacts here", Zack said.

"Clear up here too", I said letting my M4 fall to my side, "I'm about fucking done with this. I'll go back the Ford into the Garage, someone open the door for me."

"I'll get it", Zack said heading down into the darkness. I walked back outside, started the Ford and when Zack got the door open, backed in. Killing the engine yet again, I slid out as Zack closed and locked the door.

"Bathroom was that door we were facing when we came in", Zack said, "I can tell you've about had it so you go first. Rest of us should have the beds set up by the time your done."

I nodded. I fished some fresh clothes out of my ruck and walked to the bathroom. It was a small room, painted blue with a white tile floor. The tub and shower was to my right, the sink on my left and the toilet directly ahead. A small cabinet behind the tub held some old looking white towels that reminded me of well used socks, though they seemed clean enough. I stripped naked, tried the water in the shower, nothing.

"Fuck, not this shit again."

It wasn't so bad using the slightly rotten towels this time because I didn't have fiberglass like pieces of sand embedded in my skin, but it still sucked, though it was better than going to bed with a day's worth of wasteland on me. When I emerged from the rest room, Eirren went in after me. Heading back into the living room with no shirt on because fuck it, I found that the other's had dragged the mattresses from the three bedrooms along with every blanket we could find in the house out to the living room, where we made a rather comfortable stay. We arranged the mattresses in a semi circular fashion around the fireplace, Eirren and I shared the king sized one since we were the largest in the group, being dragons, while Shannon and Zack shared one, and Nat and Ben shared the other. Nero and Mya built themselves a small nest on the sofa and were back to sleep the fastest, and I decided to follow their lead.