FSE

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The wastelands have two seasons, Summer and Winter. Summers are hot, brutal and dangerous while winters are dark, frigid and offer some safety due to the fact most mutants are negatively impacted by cold weather.

When I woke up the next morning, I was frozen, or at least I felt that way. Looking out the window, it was still dark. The wind was shrieking through the skies in a way that made me feel like my spine was trying to crawl out of my back. I pulled the blanket up to my neck and rubbed my arms a bit, trying to warm up, but not having much luck. Eirren seemed to be a bit cold as well, though Nero and Nat seemed fine. Nero having rolled himself up in the lead lined blanket, sleeping soundly with a light snore, and Nat looking very relaxed up against the door, arms behind her head and her knife spear across her lap. Her visor was turned off, giving me reason to think she was fast asleep and I figured that all of the radiation inside her was working wonders for staying warm. Trying to stay as much inside of my poncho liner as I could, I picked up my phone and turned it on. 3:27AM. Friday, October 1st, 2021. Damn, looked like winter was coming early this year. There wasn't much I could due about early onset winter, so in an attempt to put up with it, I changed into my long underwear, long sleeve Honeywell shirt and put a pair of socks on. I got comfortable on the couch once again, fluffing the old pillow that wasn't actually met to be slept on and going back to sleep.

When the sun came up, it came up with a vengeance. The sun was even brighter during the winter than it was in the summer, even though temperatures were often below 50 during the day and dipped even colder at night than they normally do. I squinted, rubbed my eyes and then opened them. Nero was awake, simply laying in the nest he'd made out of the rad suit, Eirren was shivering inside her sleeping bag and Nat was sitting against the door way sharpening her spear with what looked like a rock she'd taken from the driveway.

"Is that a rock from the driveway?", I asked groggily, wishing my poncho liner was much thicker than it was. It was still so cold outside that I could see my breath.

"Yep", Nat said, "ain't got a real knife sharpener, so this will have to do."

"What time is it?", I asked reaching for my phone. The clock read 6:51 AM.

"Almost seven", I sighed, "yeesh, we gotta get on the road."

"One problem with that", Eirren said, "it's like 18 degrees outside, and I don't have any long underwear."

"I don't have a backpack either", Nat added, "both of those things might do us some good down the road."

"Always gotta be something", I muttered sitting up and rubbing my eyes. I grabbed my jeans off the floor and slid them on, working my feet into my boots while I buttoned them, "well we'll split up and search what we can of the neighborhood. Maybe we can find something I can fashion into a pack. As for you Eirren, I doubt finding long underwear will be hard. Might even find a pair in the house."

"I searched the whole house yesterday while you were in the Fog", Eirren said, "nothing."

"Shit", I sighed, "well then Nat and I will search the neighborhood and you watch Nero."

"Good plan", Eirren said giving a thumbs up, though anyone with working ears could hear the sarcasm in her voice, "I'm really too cold to move so I'll just stay here and shiver."

I dug into my pack for my red, long sleeve plaid shirt, which I put on over my current one and my Alaskan Hardgear jacket on over that. I laced my boots, grabbed my vest and AR.

"We'll be back at eight", I said giving Eirren a kiss on the cheek,, handing her my poncho liner "I'd like to be on the road by eight thirty."

"Until then I'll just sit here and freeze", Eirren shivered.

I wrapped my poncho liner around her. That was the thing about being cold blooded. Your body temperature fluctuated with the ambient temperature. I had the luxury of being somewhat able to generate my own heat, being a hybrid had it's perks I supposed, but I can't pretend I wasn't freezing my tail off too, because I was. I told Nero to behave for Eirren and then Nat and I stepped outside. The bitterly crisp air assailed my un protected head and face, the cold feeling like the stings of a million tiny fire ants, I didn't think I'd ever fully get used to it. Crazy thing was that by noon it'd probably be a hundred degrees again.

"Damn that's brisk", I chirped racking a round into my AR's chamber. My breath froze on the air, forming a puffy cloud that dissipated after a few seconds, "how long you think the nice weather will hold out?"

"Not long enough", Nat shrugged, "it'll be a hundred degrees by lunch time."

"Probably", I agreed. There were multiple houses still left standing in the area, two across the street and one about a hundred yards behind the one we were camped in. Many of the other buildings, or more like piles of rubble, still looked intact enough that we might beable to pull something useful out of them. A bunch of fencing, though blasted from Medusa's shockwave, was still standing and I supposed could be hiding something worth our time.

"Not a whole lot of fertile picking grounds huh", Nat asked.

"Not really", I mused, "how are we gonna play this?"

"Split up", Nat said, "I'll hit the house behind ours, and you get these two and their backyards across the street."

"Sounds like a solid plan to me", I said, "does your cowl have a radio in it?"

"Yeah, what channel are you on?", she asked.

"5. Only call if you find something that would require my immediate attention", I informed. Nat went back towards the other house and I went to the two across the street. I tried both doors and only one was unlocked, so that was the one I went with first. I held my rifle at the ready with one hand and opened the door with the other. Inside, the musty smell of old wood and leather hung in the air with the smell of dust and sand to acompany it. The door opened to a small room with a shelf for shoes and a coat rack on the right side with a bureau and an umbrella stand on the right. An old, scorched rug with some design on it that couldn't be picked out of the damage covered the floor that lead to the staircase and the two doorways on either side of the hall that lead to a living room and dining room. The bureau was empty and ruined. Both of the upper doors were hanging on one rusted hinge each and the glass was broken out. Only one drawer remained of the five it had come with and I could see clearly into it from the missing upper drawers. Thrown in with a bunch of random papers and beads was a box of cigarettes and what was left of a crystal liquor decanter. There sadly wasn't an AR-15 in the umbrella stand, but there was one goodie I felt very happy running across on the shoe shelf. Underneath the shelf, closest to the door, were a pair of boots. Vibiram military boots in fact. The good kind with guards that went halfway to your knees. They were in slightly rough shape, but the hardness and relative cleanliness of the soles told me they had very few, if any at all miles on them. I liked my Ozarks a lot, but they were on their last legs and falling apart at the seams, quite literally and lately they'd been hurting me more and more at the end of each day. I'd had a pair of surplus Vibirams in the past and they'd worked well until I eventually got too big for them. I had always intended to get another pair, but never gotten around to it. I picked up one of the boots, leaned against the wall and checked it against my Ozarks, they were just a little bit larger.

"This could be a good find", I said sitting down. I unlaced my Ozarks, kicked them off and replaced them with the Vibirams. The boots were about as new as you could get in a nuclear wasteland and I was happy for that, but some how I had a feeling I wouldn't be finding much other than that. I changed back into my Ozarks, deciding to wear them till they fell apart and packed away the Vibirams. It was a challenge to find the space inside my pack to put them, but in the end, I managed, I always did. I moved from the entry way into the living room, which was clear had been neglected by the house keeper over the years. The couch was upside down, the TV was smashed out, the coffee table had several huge cracks in it and the two lamps by the TV were caped with broken light bulbs, both of them missing their shades. There was a bookshelf in the back that was still almost full after all of these years.

"Adventure novels, Twilight series, paranormal thrillers, movies...Michel Vey series....hmm...Modern Firearms: A guide popular combat rifle platforms", I said to myself taking the book off the shelf and flipping to the table of contents. The book covered the Armalite platform, Kalashnikovs, The M rifle variants and the P-94 Energy Rifle, a newer energy weapon that was on the way to becoming the new M4 in terms of accessibility when the war started, "think I'll just hang onto this."

I set the book on top of the shelf where I could come back to it and moved into the kitchen, which was in about as rough a shape as the rest of the house. The counter was covered with sand and dried mud along with a bunch of old clutter ranging from dirty dishes that had never been washed, moldy food wrappers, coffee makers that were completely shot and there were even a few very old, very rotten pieces of some fruit or veggie sitting out on the counter with a few bottles of wine. I couldn't identify the decaying matter, nor did I really care to. I took care to step over all of the trash and broken bottles that littered the floor and searched the cupboards. Much to my surprise, I found they were still kind of well stocked. Cans of pringles, boxes of great value shells and cheese, salt, pepper, other spices and a small bag of flour. The next cupboard over had some Gatorade mix, tea packets, coffee grinds and some other powdered energy drinks and the final cupboard with food in it was canned, mostly veggies, but there was some Chef Boyardee mixed in. I figured the reason for the food was since these houses were so close to Medusa's blast zone, no one had come out far enough to have been able to salvage them yet. I wasn't complaining about it, that was for sure, the more food we had access to, the better.

I gathered everything from the cupboards and placed it on the table. I set the Modern Firearms book on the table as well, then moved upstairs. The upper part of the house looked ransacked, unlike the downstairs, where I attributed it more towards neglect. At the top of the staircase was another bookshelf that had been torn apart, books scattered everywhere and directly behind me was a small bathroom, which also looked like someone had blown through in a tornado. Lots of creams and ointments were thrown around, the mirror over the sink had been left open and was empty and even the shower curtain was missing. I shifted through the clutter on the floor, though I didn't find anything that was useful. I moved from the bathroom towards the upstairs hallway, which held three door ways, two on the right, one on the left with a mirror at the end of it. Both doors on the right were slightly ajar, while the one on the left was side open. The first door lead into a smaller bedroom, belonging to a little girl if the pink paint, dollhouse and barbie bedspread was anything to go off of. It had been ransacked as well, but even if it hadn't, there probably wasn't anything in here that would be worth my time. The next room over held a bit more promise. It was a male's room, older from the looks of it. An American flag was hanging over an unmade red bed with lockers underneath it's frame. They were all open and empty. His closest was off to the right and opening it, it was a total mess with clothes everywhere, but what I had set out to find was right on top. There was an old, surplus US Army Alice pack sitting on top of the clothes with a pair of long underwear wadded up in the corner that would almost certainly fit Eirren. The Alice pack wasn't in that great a shape and was missing a frame, but it had straps, was desert camo and had that old chlorine smell that all of these old bags had. Strangely satisfying if I do say so myself. I went through the rest of the room, and found evidence that some weapons had been here at some point. The gun safe, a smaller, cheaper one that had been reinforced with plate steel and some of the best welding I'd ever seen had it's door ripped off the hinges. There wasn't any sign of cutting or attempts to get the door off in one piece to avoid damaging the firearms inside, just brute force. The hinges were snapped in a way I hadn't seen before and even though it had happened some time ago, my brain fooled me into smelling freshly cut metal done by a grinder. The only thing left in the safe was a single round of 5.56 ammunition and a picture of someone's dream AR. All of the parts had been crossed off as purchased, except one.

"A Tango down stubby grip", I sighed pulling the schematic from the back of the safe, "poor kid was a few bucks away from his dream gun when the nukes came. That sucks."

I folded the schematic, put the round into my AR's current magazine and went through the parents room. I didn't much like picking up pieces of people's lives as I tried to get home. It was a stark reminder of the hell that a few people in suits in ties who couldn't get over themselves had put the rest of the world through. I didn't find too much useful inside the other bedroom, other than some old blankets that wouldn't do me much good. I had enough shit to carry as it was. I grabbed the Alice pack and stuffed the underwear into it and went back downstairs. I filled it with the food and the book, moving on to the next house. It was in even worse shape than the one I had just come from and was empty as far as useful items went. I returned to the main house, where I found Eirren had moved to the couch, still bundled in her blankets and sleeping bag, while Nero was still rolled in his radiation suit nest. Nat didn't seem like she'd return yet.

"Has Nat come back yet?", I asked.

"No", Eirren said, "she's still searching that house."

I nodded, digging the long underwear out of the ruck and tossing them at her, "I found you a pair of Long Johns."

Eirren reached out and caught them, "these are a little big."

"Well it's that or freeze", I said putting the ALICE pack full of food on the coffee table, "I get the feeling that the cold weather is gonna be lasting all day."

"Man we live in the fucking desert", Eirren sighed, "supposed to be hot not freeze your ass off cold."

"At least in the daytime", I shrugged, "you know what this cold snap means right?"

"Yeah", Eirren replied, "means winter's coming."

"At least we'll have a somewhat easier time of things", I smiled, "look at the upside. I'd rather put up with cold than have to constantly be draining my water reserves."

"Says the desert dragon who maybe needs a gallon of water a month", Eirren said.

"I don't know how rumors like that get started", I shrugged, 'I really don't."

We waited for about an hour for Nat. She didn't come back, it was now nine in the morning, well past our agreed upon time to regroup. Made me wonder if she was in trouble, or maybe she'd gone back towards the Fog. We hadn't been able to make radio contact, and there was no way she was fast enough to get out of radio range, so she had to have turned it off.

"Why the hell would she turn off her radio?", Eirren asked. Now having warmed up, she picked up her AK and several magazines.

"I don't know", I pondered, "is it possible she just went back towards the Fog and isn't answering us?"

I shook my head, "if she is, after the conversation we had last night? She's a fucking moron."

I picked up my AR and went upstairs, leaving Eirren with Nero. I got out onto the roof, and had a gander of what was going on. Nat was walking through the filed, her spear on her back and her arms filled with what looked like can goods. Peering through my scope, that is indeed what it was, a bunch of food. She saw me on the roof, I know she did, but she didn't acknowledge me, her arms were too full and since she couldn't move her head. I ducked back inside the house to somewhat get out of the cold and went back down stairs, where Eirren had emptied the contents of her pack onto the kitchen table and was cataloging everything.

"Nat's on her way back", I said, "probably got music or something playing inside her mask, why she wouldn't answer the radio."

"Cool", Eirren said counting a few flares and bundling them up with some purple string.

"Getting your stuff organized?", I asked.

"Yeah", Eirren said, "it's way overdue and the load's been increasing. You should do your stuff too and get Nat to help even the load when she gets back. It'll make everything easier on all of us."

"My pack is pretty well taken care of because I'm OCD about it, but that's probably a good idea nonetheless", I agreed.

I set my rifle and vest down beside the table, went into the living room and got my gear. I cleaned off the counter as best as I could and piece by piece I emptied the contents of my ruck onto it. Everything was already very well sorted, but my pack itself could use some maintenance. If we could cover the thirty miles to the church today, I'd make it a priority to get my back washed up and get my gear some much needed R&R. I returned to the living room to get the ALICE pack and the food that was in it when Nat knocked on the door, putting her heavy boot through the old thing by mistake.

"Aw fuck me", She laughed, "try to knock on the door and put your boot through it."

"There ain't no guy out there that could do that safely", I said opening the door, "and the only people deranged enough to try would be bandits trying to rape you."

"Good point", Nat shrugged, "where do you want me to set the haul?",

"Put it on the counter next to the sink", Eirren said, "were gonna split up the load here."

Nat set the food on the counter next to the sink. She pointed to the ALICE pack, "that one mine?"

I nodded.

"Aw, you shouldn't have", She put her hands up to her mask as if she were shocked that I'd gotten her a gift.

"Who is this female your seeing?", Eirren laughed, "your ass is mated to me!"

"Dear God, please do not make me endure this for 2200 more miles", I folded my hands in prayer.

"Yeah well, pray all you want. Weather you like it or not, you're stuck with us", Nat laughed.

"More like y'all are stuck with me", I corrected, "this is my trip and I was more than happy to do it alone."

"Going alone is stupid", Eirren said setting down her small note pad, "with the exception of you, the rest of us didn't have appealing fates. Nero and I would be dead if it hadn't been for you love."

"I'd still be stuck wandering in the Fog", Nat said, "not having anything to look forward too but more sleepless nights and nothing but ash."

"I can't say a 2500 mile trip on my own was appealing either", I shrugged, "just had to be done."

We got everything complied and took all of our personal gear such as mess kits, clothes, weapons, ammo and other things out of the mix, leaving the food and water in the pile, which then got split between the 3 of us. The Ex-2, Hunting rifle and the big revolver would go to Nat for now, until she could get her weapons back or returned to the Fog if I couldn't convince this Khen character to return her M4. While we were sorting everything and getting stuff packed away, I put my ear buds in and turned on my playlist. As far as the radiation suit was concerned. I would carry the jacket and the boots and gloves, Eirren would carry the blanket and Nat had the pants. It was too much for just one of us to carry, as much from bulk as it was from weight. Nero wasn't happy about us destroying his nest when it came time for us to pack it away.

"I won't give it up", he resisted, "it's too cold."

"I've got a blanket you can roll up in", Eirren said.

"Will it be as warm as this blanket?", Nero asked tilting his head to one side.

"Well...no", Eirren said.

"Then what good is it?", Nero asked, holding his head up as if he were a king, "leave my presence at once!"

"Your no king", I said pulling him out of the suit by the scruff of his neck, "to be a king you need a country and followers, of which you have none."

Nero put his paw on my nose, "I do so have followers, you Mom and the freaky one."

"Hey!", Nat shouted from the back, "I take offense to that...not really. I don't care what people think about me."

"So why did you say anything?", I asked sitting Nero on the couch. Eirren wrapped him in a thick fleece she had in her pack while Nat and I packed down the radiation suit as much as we could, though it wasn't much. Once that was packed up, we were on the road. The cold didn't let up, despite how high and bright the sun grew over the day, in fact the temperature seemed more like it was dropping rather than staying where it was at. Nat didn't seem to notice, I welcomed it, but it made Eirren's teeth chatter. There was a good headwind blowing too, making things all that much more complicated, especially once we realized the vegetation and trees, which were serving as good windbreaks, were starting to clear up. More dead trees, less shaggy grass and an increase in sand.

"Shit how much colder can it get?", Eirren asked, "the sun is brighter than it's been all year and yet the temperature is dropping?"

"I think it's just the wind", I said, "don't think we've gone down, but we certainly haven't come up at all."

"Windchill is a killer Arien", Eirren said, "trust me, I grew up with some pretty harsh winters."

"Yet the cold seems to bother you more than it does me or Arien", Nat interjected.

"Because I'm not a Hybrid or a Mammal", Eirren said, "I'm full reptilian. Winters suck for me, they always have and probably always will."

"Winters suck for me too love", I said not taking my eyes off the road in front of me, "you should know that even having that Arctic Fox from my Mom's side doesn't help me too much. Remember when we first met and I told you I can't travel at night because the temperature is too low?"

"Yeah", Eirren answered.

"It is really too low right now for me to be out", I shrugged, "If I were still on my own, I'd be staying put. Sometimes you just have to put up with shit."

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it before", Eirren said.

"So Nat, where exactly is this church?", I asked.

"What church?", Eirren asked.

"There's a Church about 30 miles from here with two of my friends hanging out in it", Nat said, "Khen's a rather vain dragon who runs a trading post and James, the Scorpion is a bit slow, but he's a great cook."

"Don't see too many smart scorpions", I said, "I can tell your not from a place that's got them."

"What you mean?", Nat asked.

"Most scorpions are dumb as rocks", Eirren said, "You gotta find the Bipeds before you can hope to find a scorpion that can do basic math, and even then your odds are quite rare."

"Yeah and the further down the chain you go the dumber they get", I shrugged.

"I thought he just had brain injury or something", Nat sighed, "didn't think he was stupid."

"Yeah. They're really not smart."

That little conversation seemed to weigh on Nat for the majority of the day. When we stopped for lunch, she didn't wanna eat, said she had too much on her mind to be hungry. I figured it was mostly from her learning that one of her friends was probably so dumb he couldn't add 2+2 and the other came from her wondering what she'd do if this Khen character refused to fork over her stuff. I knew she didn't want to go back to the Fog, but she didn't wanna come with us without her weapons either. I knew her gun met a lot to her because of her mate and since it was all she had left of him...

"Ya gotta eat something Nat", Nero said tugging on the bottom of Nat's jacket, "you'll starve if you don't"

Nat breathed in deeply and let out a small cloud of that radioactive mist, taking great care to direct her breath away from Nero. She laughed a little and petted his head.

"I'm not gonna starve if I don't eat lunch little buddy", she told him, "I've been much, much longer without food than just a missed lunch."

"How long?", I asked shoveling a spoon full of soup into my mouth. Eirren and I had cooked two cans of Tomato soup in a Dakota fire hole with a pot we found in the car we had stopped to eat lunch behind since the wind was so strong. The soup had heated evenly through simply by using Eirren's method of letting it bubble, stirring it and letting it bubble again. It ended up being VERY hot, but it seemed to kick the cold to the door and gave me a pretty good morale boost. I mean, it wasn't hot chocolate morale boosting, but it certainly did help.

"Well I mean I don't want to brag", Nat said smugly, "but my personal record is like 4 or five months."

Eirren whistled, "holy crap. 5 months without even as much as a bag of convenience store popcorn?"

"Yep", Nat said turning to face us. She was curled into a lump that made me feel like even with all of the radio waves going crazy inside her body she was still starting to get just a little chilly thanks to the wind, "the first time I ate after the nukes fell was the day I met Khen. Picked me up, brought me to the church and James cooked a big pot of beef stew with some of the best meat I've ever tasted in my life."

"Hopefully he'll cook up something for us then", Eirren said downing her entire mug of soup, "much better. "

"You sure you don't want some soup?", I asked sipping mine some more while an angry gust of wind blew above our heads, ratting the poncho liner we were using as a sunshade very violently.

"I'm sure", Eirren said, "gotta save room for the seven course feast James will certainly be cooking up, and probably already is."

"What do you mean?", I asked.

"He's got this knack, almost like radar that tells him whenever I'm coming", Nat shrugged, "whenever I turn up he's always got some big meal ready to go that took him all day to cook up."

"That's a high ass Perception rating", Eirren grinned taking a makeshift hot water bottle from the fire hole and sticking it inside her coat, "like a 14 or 15 Perception rating."

"Perception can only go to 11 though", I corrected, "and that's if you find the bobble head to go with it."

"Yeah seriously", Nat laughed.

"Not when you're part of the PC Master Race and can play with mods", Eirren grinned, "you lowly console peasants know nothing of the glory that was mods on the PC."

"Ha!", Nat said pointing, "I had a PC, a dual 1080 TI build and never touched a console in my life. So don't you sit there and call me a console peasant."

"I prefer to play vanilla anyhow", I shrugged, 'never really understood the mindset behind the platform wars. I played video games and that was that."

"System!?", Eirren said. She made the nick cage you don't say face and got as far into mine as she could.

"I don't know why you're making that creepy face but I hope you know CPR because I think you just stopped my heart."

"You need to tell me your system before I can start CPR", Eirren said.

"Systems are irrelevant", I shrugged, "it's the apocalypse."

"Then you can fall over and die", Eirren smiled.

Throughout this entire conversation, Nero was sitting on his haunches next to Eirren, looking genuinely perplexed.

"Mom", he asked, "what's a PC?"

"It stands for Personal Computer", Eirren said, "back before the war, us Bi-Peds used to play video games. Video being a kind of game that you played digitally, meaning literally, anything was possible. The more powerful your PC was, the better the game looked and played."

"Cool!", Nero squealed.

I shook my head. After we had finished the soup, we packed up the small camp and were once again on the road. The cold refused to let up, and now accompanied by wind howling like a banshee, the trip got even harder. The sand was picked up and tossed at us like like needle-pricked knives to the point where I'd be surprised if we got to the church before the finish on the right side of my rifle was stripped away. The hot-water bottle in my coat worked wonders for keeping the cold from staying around too long, but it didn't do much in the way of keeping it from settling into my bones in the first place. We traveled for a good 8 hours after lunch and shortly before sunset, we were coming onto a set of two buildings, one small, single story tan brick one with stain glass windows and a much taller, three story metal one with a railing around the second floor and multiple AC units. The candy apple red, customized Mazda RX-7 was sitting in the parking lot next to a orange Ford-F150 that looked bone stock minus the less obtrusive grill. The car had been driven recently, and so too had the Ford, judging by their extremely clean outward appearance. The parking lot was clear of sand, looking like someone had swept it out and the building's themselves didn't look neglected. The windows were clean, there was steam rising from a smoke stack on the roof of the three story and the smell of one of my favorite old world eats, pizza, carried on the steam from the roof to my nose. I couldn't help but notice that a well made fence, looking almost like it had gone up recently, encircled the entire property, likely to keep out Ferals and some less intelligent wasteland critters.

"The fence is new", Nat said putting her hand on the makeshift looking pipe gate, "but Khen's home, for sure, and if my nose is to believed then James is cooking."

"I am", a rather high pitched voice came from inside the compound. Peering through the gate, a very large, VERY red Emperor Scorpion with an Australian accent rose from the sand, seeming like he'd been hiding there for a while and walked to the gate. Looking up at Nat and the rest of us with eight, shiny black eyes, he asked, "what brings you by Nat?"

"A number of things brother", Nat said, "can ya let us in? I wanna talk to Khen."

With some difficulty, James punched in a combination on what sounded like a mechanical key pad and the lock on the gate popped open, "Khen is upstairs, probably got his snout in the food."

"Smells like pizza", I noted as James tried to open the door, but because he had pincers instead of hands, he couldn't get a grip on it at all and Nat opened it for him.

"It is", James said, "my Nat Finder went off this morning and I decided it would be a good idea to start cooking."

"I'll never understand how you predict me so well", Nat said, "are you magic or something."

"I have no idea sister", the large red scorpion shrugged, "I just get these ideas in my head that say, "Nat's coming and you should cook X food. I used the last of my flour and spices to make extra, so y'all dragons and your wolf kid had better eat it and not complain."

"As long as it's not supreme I'm good", I told him.

"And it doesn't have anchovies or pineapple on it", Eirren added.

"Yuck", Nero gagged, "I know what Anchovies are."

"I would never torture another fur with anchovies", James spat, "they are the most disgusting of all the Lessers."

"Yeah no shit", Nat said. James lead us up a staircase to the third floor, where we found a black and red dragon with baggy jeans, a revolver stuffed into the back of his waist band and no shirt on starring into the oven, drool hanging off his chin.

"That little shit does have his snout in the food", James said quietly, "called it. I'm gonna scare him."

James lifted his body about a foot off the ground and glided across the floor with ease and complete quiet due to the rubber shoes he wore on the end of each of his eight skinny legs. He got really low to the floor when he was behind Khen, and because of his music and focus on the food, he didn't hear or smell James' approach. James slowly put one of his pincers up to Khen's neck and then slowly lowered it down to where it was almost touching his scales.

"Get your nose out of the pizza you shitty little reptile!", James bellowed thumping Khen on the back of the head. I'd never seen a dragon clear that much air in a single jump. Even with the fact that Khen had some of the most ripped looking wings I'd ever seen on a Southern's back, that much air had to be some kind of world record.

"You fucking piece of Aussie shit", Khen snarled, "what the hell was that for?"

"A reminder for you to keep your wet sniffer outta the food", James said lowering himself back down, "we have guests and I've already fed you today."

Khen looked behind James and saw us for the first time. Smiling when he saw Nat, but seeming taken a back at seeing us only a little. When he walked over, his body moved about as much as a rock does when you throw a hot wheels car at it. The guy had biceps that were about half the size of my thighs. How does a guy get a pack like that? I want a pack like that.

"I'll deal with you later", Khen said pushing his friend out of his way, "Hey Nat", he smiled softly hugging her, "how are you holding up?"

Nat shrugged, "as well as I can be I guess. Khen, this is Arien, his mate Eirren and their son Nero. I helped Arien get through the fog last night."

"How does it feel seeing Medusa up close?", Khen asked.

"Pant-shittingly terrifying", I shrugged, "nightmare inducing, horrific. Take your pick."

"Imagine when I felt meeting Nat for the first time", Khen laughed, "I thought that I was seeing shit and that my Immunity Barrier might have been busted."

"What's your IB?", Eirren asked.

"15,634", Khen said confidently.

"Holy shit!", I laughed, "that's fucking insane!"

"How in the hell did the doctors test for that?", Eirren inquired, "that's a brutally high barrier. The amount of electricity they had to feed to that machine..."

"I'll bet it browned out the city", I laughed.

"I'd be lying if I said the doc didn't have to repaint the walls afterwords", Khen laughed, "if you guys are low on supplies, I have a shop set up upstairs, dealing in firearms, ammunition, apparel, food, water and medicine."

"What's your bartering system?", I asked.

"American dollars only", Khen said, "my entire trade company uses it."

"Company?", I asked.

"Khen owns an entire Caravan Company based near Lake Erie", James said turning around the pizza in the oven, "Clear Water Trading. Still grass, trees, good dirt and clean water out there. Grows good crops and meat. Ships it primarily to Alaska, big city out there that was untouched by the bombs."

"Damn", I said, "bet you make out like a bandit."

"Sometimes I feel like one", Khen sighed, "even though prewar you couldn't get five pounds of beef for $10."

"I take that back your customer's steal from you", I laughed.

"Well if you wanna go by prewar standards, yes", Khen said, "but in ten, twenty years time, when other companies are charging half your months water supply for a gallon of bio diesel, $10 for 5 pounds of fresh beef will make more and more people flock to me, and it keeps the Dollar the currency in the wasteland, of which I control it all."

"That's damn smart bro", I said holding out my fist.

Khen bumped it, "hey thanks man. You guys wanna do some trading?"

"How long is it till dinner James?", Nat asked.

"Well the pizza is done", James said awkwardly trying to get the pizzas out of the oven without burning his pincers, "so you guys can help yourselves if you like. Assuming I can get the damn things out of the oven. You can only do so much without posable thumbs."

"We can do trading after dinner", I said, "for now, I want me some pizza."

No one wasted any time in following my lead. I couldn't remember the last time I had pizza, but I'd remember this time for a long while to come. The Pizza that James had cooked had the best crust, the best cheese distribution, the perfect amount of sauce and handmade sausage and pepperoni in each bite. It came out of the pan in such away that no crumbs were left behind, the pan left looking like it just came out of the cupboard and hadn't been in the oven all day. I was face deep into my second piece when I realized that Nat wasn't eating anything.

"Do Eirren, Nero and I need to move down the table so you can eat?", I asked.

"Nope", Khen said rising from his seat. He went over to a cupboard, grabbed a small pill bottle and from it dispensed three small, blue pills, "here, take these."

"What are they?", I asked.

"Specialized medicine I brewed up", Khen said, "pre war, my hobby was cars but my profession was medicine. Those pills will make you completely immune to Nat's specific kind of radiation."

"For how long?", Eirren asked.

"Forever", Khen said.

I hesitated for a moment and then downed the pill, Eirren and Nero followed me. Once they were down, Nat cautiously began to remove her helmet. As close as we were, I didn't feel the sting I had felt last night when I talked with her, Eirren seemed okay and Nero wasn't blistering like he almost certainly should be. Soon Nat's helmet was all the way off, still I felt nothing.

"I guess it worked", I said holding up my Geiger counter, it was doing cartwheels, 1700 rads a second, "yep, that worked."

"Keep the bottle with you", Khen said handing me the bottle, "there's 7 more pills in there. Might come in handy if you wanna pick anyone up. Just beware, it only protects against the radiation coming from Nat's body, it doesn't do shit against normal radiation."

"I'll keep that in mind", I replied taking the bottle and putting it in my pocket, "so Khen, Nat tells me you have her personal firearm under lock and key."

"Your damn right I do", Khen said, "last time I let her alone she tried to kill herself. I'm not giving them back either so don't ask."

"What would make you change your mind?", I asked.

"Proof", Khen said.

"Proof of what?", Nat asked.

Khen placed his pizza back on his plate and give Nat the eye, "proof that you won't be putting another muzzle brake against your neck. Ever. Again."

"Trust me", Nat said, "those urges are gone. The reason he's asking is because I agreed to stick with him."

"So you'll be leaving?", James asked.

"Yeah", Nat sighed.

"No that's great!", James laughed, "it means Medusa doesn't have control over you any more. I'm happy you finally broke the spell it had on you."

"I can't go very far without my AR-15 though", Nat said, "please Khen. I want my rifle back."

Khen let out a long sigh, "does this really mean that much to you?"

"More than you can comprehend", Nat said, "I wanna move on, get away from Medusa."

"Give her the gun back Khen", James said, "that way she can move on and we can go home to Lake Erie. You know where we belong?"

Khen sighed, seeming as though he felt defeated, "okay, I'll get you your AR when we finish with dinner. As for you James, we'll head out tomorrow afternoon or after Nat clears out with these guys. Whichever comes first."

James spun around on one leg in his stool, I didn't think I'd ever seen a scorpion so happy

"Yay!", he cheered, "we're going home."

"Can't say I won't miss the cooking and your demeanor James", Nat smiled biting into the pizza, "does my tortured soul favors."

Dinner was actually...cheerful. That night. It was a first in the years since the nukes fell. When all the pizza was eaten, and it was eaten. James said he'd clean up on his own while we went upstairs to do some trading with Khen. The moment we stepped into the room he was using as a shop, I realized just how well connected this guy must have been. Military hardware, ranging from basic M4s to three Barrett .50 calibers and an M249 SAW hung on the walls. The man had boxes of ammo, grenades, flash bangs, vests, pouches boots, clothes, MRE's, bottles of water. He had EVERYTHING.

"Dude you remind me of that high level vendor in video games", I said admiring the SAW, "you've got everything."

"Feel free to test the merch", Khen said, "I'm a strong believer in try before you buy."

"I can hold it?", I asked sheepishly.

"Of course."

Yes. I thought to myself as I set my AR against the wall and took the SAW off the rack. The damn thing was heavy, very heavy indeed. But I felt like a God holding it in my hands for the first time. Inspecting it, it seemed to be mostly stock, similar to the one I saw in a gunshop a few years ago. The one difference? The giggle switch.

"Oohhhh", I grinned, "it's an automatic."

"Everything on these walls is automatic except for the Barrett's", Khen said, "and everything is for sale."

"I can't afford this no way", I smiled putting the SAW back on the rack.

"It looks like my brother's basement up here", Eirren mused, picking up a side by side combination gun from a pile of shotguns. She cracked it open, "Hey Khen, what's the going rate for a 3 ½ inch combo gun where you live at?"

"Well if you're willing to part with that over-under", Khen said, "I might beable to get it to ya for next to nothing, or maybe even nothing."

"What will an over-under, and an old hunting rifle get us?", Eirren asked.

"It could get you a number of things", Khen said. Eirren set her over-under and the hunting rifle I'd pulled out of the house on the table. She used the two guns to pick up the .308, 12 gauge combo gun and an actual set of load bearing gear and some boots that weren't held together by duct tape, but had still seen some better days. Aside from that, and Nat getting her heavily customized, blue camo AR back from his gun locker, we were rather cash strapped and couldn't afford much. When we were done trading, Khen showed us to our rooms for the night, also on the third floor. The room he showed us was nothing to sneeze at, for sure. The room was about the size of my old room back home. It had a single, king sized bed in the middle of the room with a lamp stand on either side and each one held nice, shaded lamps. The bed was made with a thick, white bed spread that looked like it had been spared the horrors of the war. It smelled fresh as well, making me wonder if there was a working washing machine here. There was an old green steamer trunk at the foot of the bed, perfect for rifles while we passed the night. A red carpet covered the entire room and a space heater stayed quietly in the corner, looking like it hadn't been used in a while.

"James and I are leaving at noon tomorrow", Khen said, "shop will be open till then and I suppose even once we clear out, ya'll can stay long as you like."

"Thanks man", I said, "it beats sleeping out in the wastes."

"I'm sure it does", Khen said, "Laundry room is across the hall and there's a bathroom through that door."

He pointed to a door behind the left side of the bed. He asked us if there was anything more we needed. We said no and he left us alone. Eirren and I put our bags down by the bedside and took off our boots and Nero simply lay down on the carpet. Without words, we emptied our packs and got our equipment sorted. Everything that could be washed, packs, clothes, pack traps, went into the washing machine, which ate it all with room to spare. Eirren put the machine on a four hour cycle for good measure and we returned, already naked, across the hall to the shower. The pressure was strong and the water came out warm and clear. Two things I hadn't seen in years.

"After you", Eirren smiled.

I made a face and started to act like I was going to get in, then grabbed her by her horns and pulled her in with me. It caught her totally off guard and the look on her face was priceless. Once we'd gotten each other cleaned up, we didn't waste any time getting into bed. Nero was well enough now that he was able to get himself clean, though we listened with perked up ears in case he hit his head on something, which he seemed fond of doing. When he was done in the shower, he shook himself off, dried further by rolling in a towel and then joined Eirren and I in bed. The sun had gone down and the wind howling outside the metal walls of the building seemed to be rolling around and around on the glass. Incessantly attacking, but unable to enter.

"I have a feeling that our luck has run out for a while", I mused turning off the light and burying myself in the thick blankets, more comfortable than I had been in a while.

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

"Two climate controlled houses and clean beds in the same week", I said, "that doesn't happen. Not normally at least. I feel like we'll be doing some camping in the coming weeks.."

"I don't mind Camping", Eirren said pulling me close and kissing my neck, "long as I have you love. Good night my boy."

"Night baby girl."

I closed my eyes, drifting off to sleep.