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The Wasteland of The United States is a dangerous place, but tends to get considerably more dangerous the further south one travels.

Hunter took off shortly after we crossed the border, the sound of his Charger carried for a good ten minutes after we'd lost sight of the tail lights. Leaving Canada and crossing into the US met two things. 1, it was much more densely populated up North than the Southern parts of Canada ever were, which meant that the chances for seeing Rabids and Bandits was shooting way up. There had been an ass ton of nukes dropped further North here as well, because this is where the bulk of the people were, so radiation concentration was gonna be higher. Add to that the military presence and chances were good we'd be seeing Army Remnants, which was a wild card. Some of the US Army started to ignore the orders to arm and assist civilians after the last nuke fell in DC, incinerating everything that ever made America a country and had been harassing and arresting people ever since, but most of them still considered Arm and Assist a valid order, it was just a matter of crossing a barricade with a Sargent in a good mood. But despite everything else I could possibly be worrying about right now, I was more concerned with Eirren. She'd been super quiet since we left Hunter's. The edges of her eyes had turned bright red with the normal bright yellow becoming dingy and dirty. Her scales had darkened considerably too. Enough that even Nero was noticing.

"Dad", he asked pulling on my pants leg "why are Mom's colors turning so dark?"

For a second, I found myself doing a double take, how the hell did he know that?

"How do you know that?", I asked.

"The blur", Nero said.

"Blur?", I asked.

"Mom looks like a green blur, like grass that's not dead", Nero said, "you look like a tan blur, like sand."

I couldn't help but smile a bit, "Mom's a bit stressed out right now bud, dragon's scales get darker the more stressed they get.."

Nero ran around to get Eirren's attention, biting on the cuff of her jeans for a good minute or two before she finally noticed.

"What buddy?", Eirren asked.

"Mom, why are you sad?", he asked curiously.

Eirren forced a smile and reached down to pick him up, "I'm just a little depressed is all. Hunter was my brother and I didn't wanna leave, he's the only family I have left."

"Why didn't you just stay?", Nero asked tilting his head.

"Because you and your Dad are more important", She smiled petting him again, "he gave us a phone so I can still call him when I like."

Eirren put Nero back down and he ran a ways ahead.

"Don't go out of our sight buddy", Eirren called after him.

"I won't!", he shouted back.

"Been a long couple of days hasn't it?", I asked glancing at her.

She sighed, "First Mark died, then that shit with the bandits happened, Nero came along and now this. Long couple of days is a fucking understatement."

"Yeah. Still got a long way to go too", I put my arm around her, pulled her close, "you know I've got your back if you need something."

"I know", she replied, "I just...I just need some time. That's all. Before long everything will be back to normal. I already left him once, don't quite understand why this is any different. But you know what? The fact that I've got you and Nero makes it hurt a lot less. I don't think there's anywhere in the wastelands I'd rather be right now."

I couldn't say I didn't agree. Soon after departing the border we hopped onto State Route 207, headed towards I-89 that would take us most of the way through Vermont according to Eirren's map. We stayed on the route for a good while, 3-4 hours I'd say, before we eventually came into Highgate, small little town, about the size of Sweeney back home. Evidence of life was sparse, but consistent and the fact that people had tried to run from America into the Canada was apparent the closer we drew to town. The other set of lanes leading towards Sherbrooke and the Border was packed with cars, the plug being a military checkpoint with one of it's defenders still manning his post. The canine skeleton was tied to the barricade with what must have been either clear zip ties or piano wire, couldn't really tell from the road. A chain collar had been padlocked around his neck with copper wiring frayed out of an extension cord hooked to a large generator in the back of someone's pick up truck lacing through it. His fatigues and all of his gear was missing, the only thing left to tell he was a solider were the rusted dog tags around his neck that I had no chance of reading from the road, even with good eyes. It was something I'd seen before, desperate people that normally wouldn't hurt anyone storming army barricades, killing whoever they could reach, taking all of the supplies there and nabbing the soldiers that lived, electrocuting them. Before the final radio station in the wastelands went offline 2 months after the bombs, it seemed like new Barricade Murders was all that I heard about. I couldn't help but slow my pace and eventually stop altogether.

"Arien?", Eirren asked, "why'd you stop?"

I didn't answer, couldn't take my eyes off the scoured skeleton hanging off the barricade. It served as a stark reminder of how close I'd come to being the victim of one of the gangs. I'd volunteered at a military checkpoint, handing out supplies, firearms and ammunition to survivors. A white minivan had pulled up to the barricade and when the Sargent on duty had asked to see the driver's id, the driver shot him straight through the head, the rear doors opened and 15 armed people rushed out of the back. They killed every single civilian on the site and swarmed us. There were only three of us at that checkpoint and they were on top of us before we could get our guns out. What happened next is hazy, I remember getting clubbed with a pipe wrench or a light sledgehammer or something that was super heavy, but when I got my head back, I was tied to the barricade, stripped to bare scales and had the chain padlocked around my neck. It was only Overwatch having watched the entire thing and disobeying orders not to fire that had saved us. It was second in terror only to seeing the billowing mushroom cloud and I had nightmares about it for weeks, still sometimes do.

"Arien?", Eirren asked tapping my shoulder, "what the hell did you stop for?"

Without answering her, I walked towards the barricade, hopping the dividers between the two roads. Inspecting the bindings and the skeleton carefully, I found that it was very weak, markings of his electrocution evident in his bones. Horrible, painful way to die and a misstep might make the whole thing come apart.

"We don't have to go that far brother", I said cutting the collar first. I set the bolt cutters down, took my multi tool off my belt and cut the piano wire that had dug into the canine's wrists as carefully as I could. Little by little, I managed to get through the wire tying him to the barricade. I carefully lifted the skeleton to my shoulders and carried it to the tent set up just off the road and set it in one of the empty cots. I took the tags from it's neck and covered it with a blanket. I didn't have the time to give it a full burial, if I did I would have, but I couldn't just leave this guy's bones to bleach into nothing, considering how close I'd come to being killed in the same manner he had. Exiting the tent and heading back, Eirren was standing in front of the dividers with Nero riding on her shoulders.

"Now you know why I stopped", I told her as I hopped the dividers, "I can stand seeing victims of barricade murders left out in the sun to bleach into nothing."

"Given the way you treated those bones like a fallen friend", Eirren sighed, "I'd say so. What have you got on your mind?"

"Hatred, despise, contempt", I shrugged, "I think that about covers it. Ain't nothing in the world that pisses me off more than seeing the remnants of a Barricade Murder."

"Why is that?", Eirren asked.

"Because I came, literally within a foot, of being a victim of one."

Eirren stayed quiet.

"The thing I remember most is the way the leader of those raiders looked me in the eye. The hatred he had for me and the two other guys there trying to help out. The guy who was going to start the generator and fry us came within a literal foot of the damn pull cord before Overwatch turned him into a bloody smear on the sand. To this day I still can't get it out of my head."

"Sounds like some rough shit", Eirren mused as we continued to follow I-89 south.

"Yeah", I huffed, "it was one of the last nails in the coffin that started my trip. Arm and Assist didn't seem to do a whole lot other than make the bandits braver."

"I can figure", Eirren agreed.

A couple of hours passed before I started to get hungry and began looking for a place that might have some snacks or canned food to scavenge. During that time, we ended up in St. Albans City. The scenery had changed exponentially. Things had become much more green, which was a welcome relief from the dirty browns and tans of the desert. I was guessing that the winds blew just right that radiation hadn't reached here, just yet at least. Give it a few more years and all of this would probably be dead. I was certain we'd see the desert again before the trip was over, but hell, take your relaxation periods where you may. Houses were spaced very generously apart down a street about 1000 feet or so long. They were common, white sided two story houses that had been left to fall into despair after being abandoned by their owners, many had their garage doors left open, tables and buckets overturned inside. Several children's bikes lay in the street, trash ranging from glass bottles to rags and newspapers were strewn about and a garbage truck with a flat tire and both doors left open sat in front of a house at the end of the street with a dumpster suspended over it's back, frozen in time from when it's operators abandoned it. Two police cars sat abandoned at the end of the street, doors and hoods open and one of them was on cinder blocks in the front with pieces of the engine hanging out from underneath it, deer guard missing. The occasional bird call could be heard through the rustling leaves and gusts of wind, even audible over the wind chimes singing from some unseen location. Shadows were cast on the pavement from giant, unkempt bushy trees and the grass of lawns was shaggy from not having been cut in so long. I found a nice spot of shade, dropped my ruck and sat down on it. Eirren slumped up against a tree and Nero simply fell to his side. Eirren and I were out of breath, but Nero, being as small and weak as he is, was completely exhausted

"Why we stopping?", Eirren asked.

"Search the neighborhood", I told her, "target, anything useful, but keep an extra close eye out for food, something canned and not contaminated if you can find it. I'm hungry and don't wanna be puking my guts up two hours from now because my lunch was contaminated. And I suppose if contaminated stuff is all you can find, well we can tough it out and give Nero whatever we find that isn't. We'll start here and work our way up the street separately, cover more ground faster. Meet back here in an hour."

What many people don't know, unlike other forms of radiation, alpha, beta, gamma, or X-rays, neutrons can actually make things radioactive. So for an explosion, some of the natural materials become radioactive or are "activated" in addition to the products of the explosion mixing with the natural material, or contamination. Most of the food that you find isn't going to be contaminated unless it was in an immediate blast zone where it could be exposed to the neutrons, and if that's the case, it probably get's vaporized to begin with. Now, if it get's exposed to fallout, such as dirt that gets bombarded by Neutrons and then picked up and thrown by the shockwave, or say the wind post blast, that's where most of your radioactive food is going to come from. Contaminated food isn't much of a problem for reptiles, dragons in specific, our scales block almost all radiation, and what little bit is in the food we ingest quickly get's filtered out by something in our blood, if I had paid better attention in biology class I'd know exactly what. Mammals, on the other hand, don't have such an easy time of things. Bust just because your Geiger tells you that something is contaminated, it doesn't tell you a damn thing about what kind of radiation it is. Alpha? Beta? Gamma? X-Ray? Neutron? All of which can kill anyone if they get enough of it in a short amount of time. As a general rule, if it sets of the Geiger, don't touch it unless you have to.

"Anything useful, particularly lunch that isn't contaminated", Eirren said reaching in her pack for her AK, "got ya."

"Use your shotgun or your handgun", I told her, "no need to be using rifles inside these houses."

Eirren gave me a funny look and then took her over-under and several shells from her pack, "whose taking Nero?"

"I will", I said standing up, stretching my legs. I took the 1300 and the bandoleer of shells out of my pack. Throwing the bandoleer over my shoulder, I checked my weapon's ammunition, one in the chamber and five in the tube. More than enough to take care of any would be attacker or vermin that may pop up. I was rather tempted to put an earbud in one ear and turn on some music while I searched these houses, but eventually came to the conclusion that situational awareness was more important. The first house was the one that we were sat right in front of. It didn't stand out from the others in anyway other than the old couch that was ripped to pieces on the porch and a tire swing that looked like some Feral kids had chewed on pre war.

"The air smells like water", Nero said taking a big sniff of the air, "why does the air smell like water Dad?"

"Can't see any blurs here huh?", I asked.

"I can't see anything but black", Nero said sniffing at the sidewalk, his ears were perked up as well, following my scent and voice without a doubt, "did the sun go down?"

"It's like 2 in the afternoon buddy", I smiled, "the trees here are still alive, they're blocking mister sun. Still super bright for me, but enough light is probably filtering out that you're not going to be able to see anything."

I stepped up the stairs to the house, trying the knob to the door, finding it was locked but the knob wasn't in there very well at all. Just enough I couldn't yank it out, but enough I could maybe bust it out with the 12 gauge. I stepped back and raised my shotgun, slamming the stock down on the fragile knob with all of the force I could muster, snapping it right off. I pushed the door open with my shotgun in my shoulder, barely stepping into the house when I heard a thunk on the steps. Of course it was Nero, when I turned around, he was sitting on his tail shaking his head, probably hit himself again.

"Bonk your head on the steps buddy?", I asked.

"I guess", He said groping around with his paws, trying to find the steps, but not having much luck as he was well out of reach, "I can't even tell where they are."

"It might be a good idea for you to ride on my shoulder for now", I said picking him up and setting him on my left shoulder. He wasn't heavy at all, not any more than 6 pounds, lighter than some rifles. I didn't think that was a good sign, but then again, he was only a puppy.

Inside the house, I found a normal home. The living room was about 14 feet from wall to wall where the door was with the back wall maybe being nine or ten feet in front of me. Against the back wall was the stair case that had a door underneath it with a window overlooking a fenced in back yard with a tool shed and a collapsing metal pool. An ugly as shit brown couch that looked like it'd been eaten by Feral wolves or foxes was up against the left hand wall with a dark brown stained coffee table in front of it. Against the other wall was a wooden console that had a DVD, VHS and Record player built into it. A large flat screen that still appeared to be in serviceable order hung on the wall with an Xbox 1 underneath it. Too bad internet had faded into history. Would be nice to play Infinite Warfare again. The kitchen was off to the right while a small hallway lead into three doors that lead to a office, master bedroom and closet respectively. Immediately by the door was a large cabinet with the key still in the top wooden and glass doors that put it's contents, a whiskey flask and large clumps of dust, on display for all to see. Even with the key in the lock, the doors were made of glass so it was a rather trivial task to simply knock it out with the end of my shotgun. I took the flask from the cabinet, unscrewed the lid and took a cautious smell to see if there was anything inside it. There was and it smelled like it was dead whatever it was, but it was a very nice flask, made out of engraved titanium, so it was worth keeping.

"Smells like shit!", I gagged, trying hard not to puke, "note to self, wash in radioactive water to kill whatever is living in here, rinse in boiling water and sanitize with rubbing alcohol."

I stuck the flask into the pocket on my combat pants and headed off into the kitchen. Against one wall were mahogany cupboards with brass hinges and handles that accented quite well with a black and stainless steel stove, hanging wall oven and fridge. The coffee maker, missing the pot, lay on it's side near the sink, which was missing one of the knobs, weird thing to be missing, but I'd seen weirder. The other side of the kitchen was the fridge, some shelves and a nook where the trashcan and pantry were carefully hidden. Aside from the welcome sight of a can of unopened plain pringles, a half full jug of water and a can of pears, it had been stripped clean. I made a note of those things to come back to and turned my attention to the kitchen table. Why? Because it had been made into a fort out of a combination of sandbags, blankets, metal trashcans filled with dirt, pillows, sleeping bags and any manner of other things. A few backpacks made for Feral kids that were too skimpy to likely hold anything of value were up against the sides of this fort along with an old hunting rifle that looked a bit too rusted to save. I crouched down and inspected the bedding, looked like it hadn't been touched in years and the only piece of evidence I could find that it had ever been touched at all was a canine tooth and a letter to the tooth fairy.

"Dear Tooth Fairy. I am writing to tell you that instead of money, all I want for this tooth is for you to bring my Mommy and Daddy home. They were away when the flash came and my big brother says they can't come home because the flash made the car Uncle Tom drove them to the store in not work. I know you are magic, so could you make the car work again so they can come home? Love, Benjamin."

I folded up the letter, placing it in my shirt pocket. It hurt to read, made me want to cry just a little bit, fucking bombs. Kid who wrote this couldn't have been more than a couple years old at the most. What I think happened was his older brother heard on the news, or otherwise found out that the bombs were coming and told his little sibling that he wanted to build a fort in the kitchen until their parents came home. The little sibling was excited, not knowing that Nuclear bombs were on the way and built it, parents never came home and older brother was forced to tell all. After that? Who knows. If they had bugged out they wouldn't have just left their packs and rifle behind, and if they were taken by bandits or the army the gun would have been crushed under a five ton or tank. Given that none of the houses here had much in the way of damage other than broken windows and some weak doors, I think that a Neutron Bomb probably fell somewhere near by, catching them in their sleep. It would explain only the tooth being left behind, but then again, if they had been vaporized by a Neutron Bomb, that tooth would likely have been vaporized as well. The most likely event was something spooked the older brother, so he grabbed his brother and just bolted. Sighing quietly to myself, I grabbed the rifle out from underneath the blankets and inspected it. It was a basic 7.62x54 Remington with a simple sling and the rust wasn't as bad as I had first thought, worth hanging onto if I could find some .308 ammo somewhere down the line. I slung the rifle over my back, searched through the two backpacks underneath the table, found them empty and took one of them to use to carry whatever supplies I found in the house. I rummaged through the rest of the cupboards in the kitchen, finding some dry roasted peanuts and a few granola bars, but no jerky of any kind, nothing canned with meat in it, not even a can of spaghettios. It left me rather depressed, but as far as I was concerned, any food was good food. I stowed it all away in the pack, moved from the living room and into the master bedroom. A King bed with only a fitted sheet sat in the middle of the back wall with a nightstand and lamp on either side. A dresser that looked untouched was to my immediate right and a small closet sat between it and the wall. I started my rummaging over again with the dresser. Didn't find a whole lot that was actually useful to me, aside from some tube socks, also known as the best sock and a few button up shirts that I would have liked to have but were made for Feral canines, so they wouldn't exactly fit a Southern Dragon. At the very bottom of the male's side of the dresser, I found a key, not your normal key either.

"Where the hell is your gun cabinet?", I asked myself, stashing the key in my pocket. Ferals weren't known for their shooting skills, but most of them had paws that worked like Southern hands. Going prone and using a bipod was usually enough to put them on equal playing field, which is why when they owned rifles they tended to be for long range. Having said that, handguns were super popular among them because of their ease of use with only a single paw. What I'd find when I found the cabinet would likely be a cache of handguns, but in what caliber's I didn't know. I continued my inspection of the room, examining every nook, cranny and old dust bunny that looked even remotely interesting, even checking for the gun safe behind the ugly painting on the wall, but it turned out to be just that, the ugly painting on the wall. I'd about given up when I happened to glance at the closet again. The back wall didn't look just right and I wasn't sure what I was seeing that gave me a gut feeling to check it again. I put my paw on the wall. It didn't feel like a normal wall, almost like cloth.

"If I was a smart dragon, I just might be hiding a safe back here."

Turns out my hunch was correct. The wall felt like cloth because it was a false wall, almost like one of those window shades that you pull down on and a spring winds it all up. The safe was a cheap one, couldn't hold more than two pistols, or one and some ammo. I stuck the key in the lock and gave it a turn. The safe was a little worse for wear, but it came open with a bit of effort. Inside was a .45-70 Government Tech revolver, one that had been spared the atrocities of the war and still had a shiny coat of black paint. I'd only ever shot .45-70 once in my life, from a civil war era Gatling gun at a field day at the gun range back home, so I had no idea what this round would do to my wrists when I shot it for the first time. There were 50 rounds of ammunition in the safe with the revolver, wasn't a whole lot, but it wasn't anything to sneeze at. This plus the Hunting rifle was a pretty good find. Apparently that was all the house had to offer, because I didn't find anything remotely useful upstairs except for some interesting looking dust bunnies and a nest of Warrior wasps that about had me pissing my pants because I didn't even know they were there until they started beating their wings like war drums, making me scramble to find their nest so I didn't impede on their turf any further. It was up in the corner of the room, mostly hidden in the wall. There were only ten wasp on the nest that I could see, but since they lived in nests of 1000, there were a few more in there.

"I think it's time to back right off", I said picking up Nero and slowly backing out of the room.

"What sounds like drums?", he asked.

"Wasp, big, toxic, angry wasps that will give you a sting so bad you'd rather be shot."

Nero gulped as we went back down stairs and outside to the truck. I put my findings in the backseat and went back through the house and into the office so I could access the garage, which, lo and behold, was bare aside from a lone round up sprayer and shelf with some hoses and washing machine parts. Shaking my head, I went back outside and walked the sidewalk to the next house over. The door on this one was unlocked, but when I pulled it open, I found that the upper floor had caved in on the lower one. The smell of black mold and rot was heavy in the air. Water damage, probably caused when a PVC pipe decided it'd had enough of radiation and sprung a leak, the well pump noticed pressure was down and pumped up more water to fill the tank, but the hole in the pipe kept it leaking. Who knew how long this went on before the power went out. Guess the wood just got too rotted to hold up it's own weight.

"Don't think I'll find much in here", I sighed using my flashlight to see if I could pick anything of value out of the rubble. The only thing I saw that might be something worth my time was a piece of heavily rusted pipe with a knot on the end that may or may not have once been part of a rifle. I certainly wasn't gonna go digging through that moldy rotten shit to try and dig a firearm out that would just need the barrel chopped anyway. I poked my head in the door, trying to see if I could locate a straight path to a door that might take me into the garage, but didn't, so I'd have to find a back entrance, or just move onto another house.

"Let's go around back and see if we can get a back door to take us inside", I said aloud as I headed around back, hopping the fence into a carefully un-cared for backyard with an overturned pool, tree house left abandoned and a deflated kick ball in a garden overrun with weeds. There was a back door into the garage, but it was locked up tight and didn't show any sign of budging. At that point I had two options, blow the lock out with the shotgun, or crash into the door until I knocked it off, or knocked myself out. I think it should be obvious what I did next.

"Eirren", I said getting on the radio.

"What's up?", she asked.

"Got a locked door here, gonna shoot the lock off with the shotgun, wanted to let you know so you're not concerned."

"Got ya", she replied, "fire away."

I took my shotgun off safe, "cover your ears buddy."

Nero put his paws over his ears. I put the shotgun to the door and pulled the trigger. It'd been a long time since I'd used this weapon and the kick was a brutal as I remember. The door knob didn't put up much of a fight under the buck and the door unlocked. The hinges were unoiled and assaulted my ears, but the door opened easily enough. The two car garage was empty of cars, but all kinds of metal scrap, electronic scrap, fasteners, hoses, piping and other random parts and cans of chemicals had been left behind.

"Circuit broads, servos, wires, scrap metal, turpentine", I droned aloud as I shifted through the boxes of all my favorite things when I was growing up. If I hadn't been here looking for strictly things I needed, I could have sat down here and played with this stuff for days without getting bored. Seeing as though we were on somewhat of a schedule, I just grabbed the turpentine and a few other things that looked like they might come in handy and moved to the next house. One by one, Nero and I cleared the houses on our side of the street. It was evident to me that Nero's parents didn't allow him into old prewar houses very often by his incessant yammering wanting to get off my shoulder and explore on his own. My answer was always no, because it wasn't safe for him to off on his own without working eyes, there was too much he could run into that could inflict an injury I couldn't fix. Eirren and I met up at the tree at around three in the afternoon. The haul? Not a whole lot to be honest. All we'd turned up was the stuff I found in the first and second houses and some extra shotgun shells and cans chicken soup that Eirren had found.

"Chicken soup", I smiled, "the Cambles chunky brand. Yes."

"Lemme see what you found", She said.

I pulled the hunting rifle and the revolver off my back and handed them to her. She checked the action of the Remington several times over before sitting it back in the seat.

"Seems like a decent rifle", she said, "just wish we had rounds to put through it."

"I found about 50 rounds for the revolver", I told her, "but as rare as these will probably get the further south we go, a test fire is out of the question."

"45-70 isn't common down in Texas?", she asked.

"If it is, I didn't know", I said, 'I've only shot 45-70 once in my life and that was out of a civil war era Gatling gun at a field day at my local gun range. Never seen any revolvers on any gun store shelf or any ammunition for sale either, but then again, maybe I'm not looking hard enough. By the way, did you happen to pull a baton out of either of those cop cars?"

"I did actually", Eirren said setting her gear down "two of them."

"Nice", I smiled, "gimme one. I've wanted one for a while."

Eirren handed me one of the Batons, "we gonna stop for the night next town over?"

"Depends", I said, "where is it at?"

"Next town over is Milton", Eirren said, "bout 13 miles south of here."

"Assuming we keep our current pace, that's got us arriving at around 7PM", I mused, "temperature will already be dropping off by then, so yeah, probably."

"Why not just travel at night when it's cool?", Nero asked, "that's I used to do with..."

He kind of stopped himself, like he didn't want to think about his bio parents.

"With your birth parents?", Eirren asked.

"Yeah", Nero sighed.

"We can't travel at night because unlike you", I said, "your Mom and I don't have a shaggy fur coat to keep us warm when the temperature drops to subzero levels after dark."

Nero smiled a big, kiddish, toothy smile, "just put on a blanket!"

"I don't have a wearable blanket", I smiled picking up my pack, "let's move on. Sooner we get to Milton the sooner we can put up for the night."

With what little we found in town all packed away, the three of us returned to the road. We followed State Route 36 out of St. Albans City and back onto I-89. The environment stayed green and shaggy as the sun begin to recede behind the tree line, and the sunset was absolutely breathtaking. Streaks of gold and copper clouds were set against a pink, orange and periwinkle blue skyline. The great ball of fire blasted fiery red and orange as it sank below the tree line and the way the light rays shone on the dust through the trees and cast off of the reflectors set into the pavement of I-89 put on a light show like nothing I'd ever seen. It was so spectacular that I pulled out my phone and started recording, while Eirren took an expensive looking Nikon camera from an attached pouch on her pack to take pictures.

"Log number 4, week 3 day 6", I said turning on the front facing camera, "going down the remnants of I-89 towards Milton to stop for the night and...", I turned so the camera could face the sunset, "focus on it!"

The area around me darkened as the camera on my phone focused only on the sky and sunset, "there we go. The sun set is spectacular. I haven't seen one this amazing since I left Maine a few weeks ago. Despite all of the carnage the Nukes caused, one good thing that came out of it was the fact that sunrises and sunsets are incredible."

"It sends shivers down your spine doesn't it?", Eirren asked from the back ground without taking here eyes out of her camera, "you gonna introduce us yet?"

"Sorry", I smiled, "didn't consider you significant enough to warrant it."

"Yeah well you know what? Fuck you too Arien", Eirren said as I walked up next to her.

"This is Arien, my new friend and she is the prettiest", I said to the camera. Eirren put her arm around me and flashed the peace sign, Nero in her off hand and the camera hanging around her neck.

"Mate to be is more like it", she laughed kissing my cheek.

"In time", I said, "in time. Nero, do you have anything to say to the camera?"

"Hawi", Nero laughed, "I can't even see you and this may just be a cruel trick played on an innocent puppy who has no idea how stupid he looks right now."

Eirren looked like she might die. Her cheeks turned a rosy red and she was struggling to hold back laughter.

"I had the fortune of having these two fall into my lap a few days ago", I said, "we've been inseparable since then. What's our destination guys?"

"Somewhere", Nero said, 'I really don't know."

"Brazoria Texas", Eirren said, "see? I do pay attention."

"Otherwise known as home", I said, "everyone smile for the camera, that way we can look back on this years from now and remember this trip."

"Will we want to", Eirren asked kissing me again.

"Yeah", I answered, "I think we will."

I cut off the recording and we continued onward. We arrived in Milton shortly after nightfall and broke into the first house we found. Flashlights on, the room was the living room. There was a decaying red sofa right next to the door with a coffee table in front of it facing a large flat screen sat on top of a large, hand made cabinet. Directly behind the TV was a giant air vent that reminded me of the one that was in the trailer I lived in as a kid. The kitchen was directly to the right of the entry way and in the furthest left hand corner of the room was the hallway that lead to the rest of the house. I dropped my pack, collapsed the stock on my AR and moved towards the hallway.

"Clear living room", I called out.

"Clear kitchen", Eirren said.

Eirren moved through the hallway with me. The first room it lead to was about 10 feet from the living room. The door was closed we were faced with the task of having to breach it. I could hear growling on the other side as well, either a pissed off home owner, or a Rabid.

"What do you wanna do?", Eirren asked in a whisper.

"Got any more of those noise makers?", I asked.

"Last one", She said reaching into a pouch on her leg and pulling out a tin can with a fuse in it. With some trouble, she managed to get it lit. I kicked the door open and she tossed the grenade inside. It went off after a few seconds and we rushed inside the room. It was a small kids room, barely big enough to fit two adult dragons, but the single, rabid Feral inside? Was just right for him. Eirren was quicker on the trigger than I was and a few shots had the rabid lying dead on the floor in a puddle of his own blood.

"Clear left", Eirren said checking a cubby.

"Clear right", I responded. We moved from the bedroom down the hallway to a second room. Stacking up, I kicked it in and we funneled into the room, it was an office. We found two more Rabids, adult male and female Coyotes, likely the parents of the other Rabid Eirren had just shot. Eirren took the Female target and I dealt with the male. We checked a few other doors in that same room before moving towards the final two , breaching the one to our left first, finding it was a bathroom that had a secondary door inside of it that couldn't have lead to anywhere other than the final room, being the master bedroom.

"You breach this one and I'll breach the other", I told Eirren.

"Rodger", she replied. I left the room and went back into the hallway. There wasn't any way of getting out of the way of someone set up on the other side of the door, because the hallway was mere inches wider than the door itself on either side. Bad news for me, because I could hear someone on the other side of the door and it sounded like he had a shotgun.

"Eirren", I whispered, "I hear someone on the other side of this door, sounds like he's got a shotgun."

"How you wanna play this?", she asked.

"Shoot the lock off your door with your AK", I told her, flipping my AR-15's selector to Binary, "at the same time I'll kick my door in and hope that my trigger finger is still good."

"On the count of three. 3, 2, 1", Eirren counted down. Her AK cracked off a shot and I kicked the door in, instantly dropping to my stomach. There was a single hostile with a shotgun, one of the few Rabids who'd kept it together enough to operate a firearm, looking like she was a friend of the family. Certainly not a member, she was a Bi-Pedal and the wrong species, German Shepard. She was focused on Eirren's door and though she'd seen me kick the door in, she hadn't expected me to drop prone. By the time she started to shift her aim, the dot in my weapons optic was already on her forehead. I didn't feel much recoil as I sent the two rounds out, at this range, that SS-109 military ammunition was devastating. The first round impacted the Shepard's chin, ripping her jaw clean off her skull and deflecting out the side of her cheek while the second round continued on it's flight path, tearing through the fatal T with lethal precision, separating the top half of her skull from the lower half. Her body went limp instantly and fell like a rag doll. The nasty brown Rabid blood with the consistency of maple syrup splattered on everything.

"That sucked", Eirren stated as I rose, "clear left."

"Clear right", I replied. Realizing my Rifle was now empty, I pulled the magazine out, stuck it back in my vest, took a fresh one from my kit and rocked it into place, hitting the BAD lever mounted to the bolt catch to chamber the fresh round, "and now, we set up camp."

"While you do that", Eirren said, "I'll see if I can get that gas stove in the kitchen to light. What do you want for dinner?"

"That can of chicken soup", I said, "contaminated or not, I'm eating it."

Eirren giggled, "yeah, too bad my favorite food no longer exists."

'What would that be?", I asked slinging my rifle over my shoulder.

"Ham", she said simply, "just oven baked ham."

"I like ham", I smiled.

"Who doesn't?", she agreed. Eirren recovered Nero, who'd hidden under the couch, somehow, when the gun fire started. She took him into the kitchen and started on dinner while I set up my bedding, stripped off my nasty combat fatigues and went out back to clean up as best I could. How I longed for running water indoor plumbing. The well was on the first to restore list when I got home, for sure. It was too dark in the house to see anything, so I reached into my pack, cracked a few glow sticks and scattered them around the room, bringing the light up just enough that my natural night vision was able to kick in. While I was fixing Nero a place on the couch out of the blankets, Eirren came back with a bowl of steaming hot chicken soup.

"Soups here Ari", she said setting the bowl on the coffee table.

"Thanks Eirren", I replied.

"Did you get cleaned up?" she asked.

"As best as one can in a nuclear apocalypse with nothing but a few fast food restaurant moist towelettes", I said sarcastically turning to the bowl of soup, "guessing you got the stove working?"

"Had to light it with a match", Eirren said, "but yeah. Better than cooking over a campfire."

"I'll bet", I nodded as I slurped up the soup. It had been far, far too long since I'd tasted the amazing mix of carrots, egg noodles, chicken, salt, pepper and broth. It beat MRE's by a long shot and was the first time in months, hell years even, since I'd had something to eat that wasn't warmed halfway through because I was no good at cooking over a campfire.

"This is really good Eirren", I said, "it's been ages since I've had something that wasn't warmed halfway through because I don't know how to cook over a campfire."

"Let it sit till in bubbles a lot, stir it, then let it bubble again and taste it", Eirren said, "same with most any other method of cooking, except baking. I'm shit at that."

"Dakota Fire Holes", I said, "I'll teach you how when we stop tomorrow."

I finished the soup rather quickly. When I was putting down for bed, Eirren and Nero were still eating.

"I'm going to sleep", I told her, "try not to make too much noise."

"I won't", she said kissing me, "night love."

"Night baby girl."