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There is never any telling what the wastelands will throw at you next. Always keep your weapons ready and sleep in shifts. Letting your guard down means certain death.

Turns out that sleeping on the ground in the cold after a Nuclear Apocalypse isn't such a great idea. When I woke up the next morning, I felt worse than when I had put up the night before, and it certainly didn't help that I could tell that today it was going to be colder than a mother fucker. The sky was dark, the wind was howling like a wolf during the full moon and I swear to god there was ice on the tip of my nose, though it may have just been super cold. Eirren was snuggled up next to me, Nero was sitting in Nat's lap and there was a roaring fire going outside of the shelter. Nat had put up some space blankets around the inside of the shelter and they, combined with the plastic tarp and firewall that was built in front of the fire meant that the shelter was toasty warm, though when the wind managed to draft inside, it was like having liquid nitrogen sprayed on you. It was this morning that I was reminded of the old saying, be careful what you wish for, because you might get it. During the first days of my trip, I was wishing for a cold winter. Well, looks like I was going to get it and I can't say I was over joyed.

"How'd you put these blankets up without waking us up?", I asked turning to look at Nat, trying at the same time to not wake up Eirren.

"Very carefully", she yawned, her mask expelling that copper colored mist that made the Geigers freak out and scream like someone was having a heart attack.

I sighed, my breath freezing into tiny shards of ice on the air, "it's gonna be a long day I think. What time is it?"

"Shortly after seven I think", Nat shrugged, "I don't know. I'm too tired to think."

"Feeling's mutual", I groaned sitting up. The back of my neck felt like someone had driven a nail into it and my back felt like, well, it felt like I'd slept on the ground. I pulled on my jacket and boots, grabbed my AR and exited the shelter. A deep, rolling fog was resting on the ground all around us, so dense I couldn't see too far in any direction. It would be good for cover, though threat detection would be limited to sound and smell. It wasn't ideal condition's for travel, so we should be staying put. Of course, what I should do was vastly different from what we were going to do. I looked around the area for something to cook on, finding some pipes and a grate in a large pile of metal scrap that I assumed at one point was someone's house. I tied the pipes and the grate together to make a tripod, which I set over the fire. I filled my mess kit with water and set it on the grate, sitting by the fire to stay warm. In the time it took the water to boil, Nero, Eirren and Nat had all joined me. We cooked breakfast over the roaring fire, keeping warm in spite of the wind that was beginning to brew.

"Hey", Nat said stirring her ravioli, "what if you knew you were gonna die tomorrow and could have anything you wanted to eat, what would your last meal be?"

"My grandma's mac and cheese and as many spicy Chicken McBites as I could stomach", I said putting the great value shells and cheese into the boiling water, "Damn...what I wouldn't give to be at work right now."

"I agree", Eirren said, "I would just scarf down as much Pizza Hut pizza as I could. Hell I'd eat till my stomach exploded."

"Good answer", Nat said, "I'd give anything to have another one of Ben's Thanksgiving turkeys. Holy shit those things were amazing."

"We deep fried ours every year", I said stirring my noodles, "You haven't lived till you go out, buy a frozen turkey five gallons of oil..."

"I have a pretty good idea where this is going", Eirren grinned.

I started laughing, "You boil the oil till it hits five hundred degrees and launch the mother fucker across the street and into your neighbors pond and then watch it explode like a depth charge. Scared the ever living SHIT out of those poor souls across my street, I've seen lizards turn a lot of colors, but I've never seen anyone turn as white as a sheet of printer paper that fast. Look on his face was fucking priceless."

"Speaking of white scales", Eirren said, "I remember I was at home studying for a test one day and Hunter comes wobbling through the door. He shuts it behind him and drops this duffle bag to the ground and bricks of weed spilled all over the floor. And I'm just sitting at the table remembering the amount of trouble I got into the last time they caught Hunter with a super joint and started praying that he hadn't fucking killed someone on the way home."

"A super joint?", Nat giggled, "what in the actual hell is a super joint?"

"Well you take a big sheet of graph paper", Eirren began, "insert two pounds of weed, roll it up with an entire glue stick and then wonder if there's anyway you can safely smoke the thing."

By the time she finished, Nat was laughing so hard she was crying, meanwhile I was laughing so hard that I'd just about stopped breathing.

"Arien?", Eirren asked patting my shoulder you okay.

I snorted a long snort and manage to squeak out, "no."

"Why not?", she asked.

"I can't fucking breathe!", I said struggling to get the words out.

"Why not?", Eirren asked.

"Because he's laughing too hard", Nat said holding her head in her hands.

I fell on my back, trying to catch my breath, "did he ever smoke it?"

"Uh, yeah", Eirren said, "five hours after that, I came home from work and I find him laying nude on the couch with that damn thing rammed as far back into his throat as he could get it without choking. I love my brother and all, but whenever he was high, he'd do shit so fucking stupid you'd wonder how he'd made it to the ripe old age of 30. If had a dollar for every time he'd gotten me into trouble with those super joints."

I put my hands on my face, "holy shit, I thought I had it bad when I was still living at home. Least my brothers didn't smoke two pounds of weed at once."

"Went from last meals to super joints", Nat shrugged, "seems legit."

"What's a joint?", Nero asked.

"Drugs buddy", I said, "stuff you don't wanna do because it destroys your body."

"That's all you need too", Nat said, "when we were little, they made us sit through hours of boring classes in school to teach us obvious things."

"School?", Nero asked.

"A place you'd rather be than here in the wastelands...there's a sentence I'd never thought I'd say", I shrugged draining my noodles. I fixed my food and moved with a purpose. We'd spent too much time laying around a fire talking, was time to get on the road. When breakfast was done and cleaned up, we packed up camp and moved on again. Eirren was on the map, leading us toward Whitehall NY, and our first obstacle in New York. I knew that while we were in New York, we were gonna be seeing combat, for two reasons. One, Rabids, New York had a lot of them. Even in Maine, we were getting Rabids wandering up from the ruins of Long Island, so I imagined in state, we'd be seeing more and the second reason was our firearms. I knew most New York Bandits would be itching to get their hands on some real fire power, which put targets on our backs, big ones. For that reason, and that reason alone, it was safety's off, rounds in the chambers.

"Doesn't look like we have that far to go to hit Whitehall", Eirren said tucking the map away, "assuming we don't get bogged down in the town, we should beable to get to Greenwich before night fall. Now...time for bad news."

"Oh boy", I sighed.

"I don't think there's any way for us to avoid Albany", Eirren said, "at some point, we have to get on I-87 and go through that city, and I don't much like that idea, but I don't see any other way around it."

"Bridge we'll cross when we get there I suppose", I shrugged. Truth be told, after our encounter with Rabids in Sherbrooke, I didn't wanna go near another city as long as I lived. Which, if I think about it, might not be that much longer anyway, but still. Disaster movies and shows, while fiction, always pushed the same message, stay the hell away from the city to avoid ex accountants turned war lords with a bunch of mindless fools to follow them around. The closer we got to town, the more quiet we tried to be and once we actually arrived in town, we had reason too.

Less than a hundred yards past the city limits sign was a pile of fresh Rabid corpses. Looking through the magnifier on my AR, I could see that each of the corpses looked to have been created the same way. Upon closer inspection, my hunch was confirmed. A hollow point round that entered through the top of the forehead and took the skull cap off. That kind of shot, repeated across multiple targets would require trigger disciple, a good piece of glass and a self loading rifle of some kind, the shots were too consistent to be a bolt, lever or some other kind of manual action. I further inspected the area, revealing spent 5.56mm brass, one for each Rabid.

"Wonder who's shooting an M4 like this?", Eirren asked inspecting the bodies.

"Can't say", I said glancing around, trying to see if I could gauge exactly where the shots had been fired from. Since all of the bodies were laying in random directions and the rounds had all entered from the front of the head, it could suggest multiple shooters, that the rounds had simply transferred their energy to the Rabids strangely, or that our shooter had purposefully turned them around to throw would be bandits off the trail to his hide, "probably just spun the bodies around weird to throw people off. Either way we know there's an active shooter in the area, which means this town is probably rigged, so I suggest we step lightly and pay attention. Would rather not be shot."

The girls agreed. Nat kept Nero close to her, I took point and Eirren brought up the rear. We traveled single file, that way anyone who was in front of us would only see me, at least until they open fired. We navigated through the town without a whole lot of problems, searching various building's and cars for supplies and resources, most of which had been picked clean. The one thing I found strange though was the strange...order, that all of the building's we could access were in. Trash cans had been stacked up, tables and chairs were moved against walls and stacked neatly, cars had been moved out of the road, not by brute force of several furs, but rather by simply jimmying the gear shifts into neutral so they could be moved easier. Combining what I'd seen in the other buildings, evidence of looting and a fresh pile of Rabids, likely shot as pest control, just confirmed that the area was hot, yet, it was quiet, strangely quiet actually. I kept my ears open, though couldn't hear much but the wind and the silence of the country side. We continued to navigate Whitehall, stopping dead in our tracks when I heard a door shut and heavy boots go walking down the street hidden from our view by a row of buildings. I followed the sound of the boots as they grew fainter, took a turn to the left and then began walking straight towards us, now, I could hear very faint beats from the music he was listening too. How the hell did he have ears left?

"Coming straight for us", I said opening the door and checking for Rabids. The house smelled like shit, but the smell of Rabids was absent, "stay down and stay quiet, maybe we can sneak past him."

The girls funneled into the house and Eirren shut the door tightly behind her. They hid with Nero in a notch behind the staircase with rifles ready while I lay down by the window, listening to the sound of the guy's foot steps coming steadily towards us, eventually I was even able to tell the song he was listening to, OT Genesis, in love with the Coco. When the boots stopped just outside of the house, my blood ran cold.

"Fuck me", I sighed.

"Why the hell is this door closed?", a male's voice asked aloud as a sling rustled "I didn't close this...did I?"

I heard the girls try to hide more in the notch behind the stairs. The tell tale sounds of the bolt going back on an AK-47 hit my ear drums like a hammer, weather I liked it or not, this guy was coming inside. We wouldn't be able to hide from him, so we were going to have to fight. I heard more foot steps and the rustling of older sounding military equipment as the guy came up to the house and turned the door knob, pushing the door open. He paused in the door way for a few seconds before I heard him bring his rifle to his shoulder.

"I can smell you", he said quietly to himself, "no doubt you heard me....where are you hiding."

It was more of a statement than a question. He stepped inside the house walking all the way to the edge of the stair case without seeing me. He was a shark, about 6'5 mostly blue with a wavy white transition between his upper and lower body, which was light grey. He was dirty, smelled like smoke, diesel fuel, spent motor oil, blood, sweat and his skinny arms were covered in gashes, cuts and bruises. He was wearing some kind of custom plate carrier that closely resembled a Vietnam era flack vest, no shirt, old jungle boots and olive drab pants. The urge to just blow his brain out the front of his skull was overwhelming, but he didn't deserve to die just cause we picked the wrong time to walk into his town, so I simply raised my rifle and let the bolt fly forward. His entire body stiffened and he blanched white.

"I've got no intention of shooting you", I said, "for now at least, but if you make a move or try to raise that AK, I won't think twice, my finger is faster than you are, and even if the first round of my burst misses, the second won't."

"I can smell the other three", the shark said setting down his rifle, a jet black, tricked out AK with an S&B Short Dot scope and a magazine set up identical to Eirren's, "two females and a male."

"Girls?", I said, "be careful around this guy Nat, I'd rather we all walk out of here in one piece."

Nat, Eirren and Nero stepped out from underneath the stairs, Nat keeping her distance and Nero close to her. Instead of her rifle, she had the 45-70 revolver in her hand. The shark swallowed hard, I felt like he was certain he was going to die.

"If you're gonna cap me just get it over with", he pleaded.

"No, I don't intend to kill or rob you. Didn't intend to trespass either, weren't aware that the town was occupied when we planed our route for today."

Eirren picked up the shark's rifle and handed it to him. Nat and I lowered our guns, seeing that he was hesitant to retrieve it.

"Bruh, pick up your weapon and don't let her touch anything in this nasty house", Eirren said handing it to him, "do you want your AK to get aids? Because places like this give Kalashnikovs aids."

The shark took his AK and slowly slung it over his shoulder.

"You the only one out here brother?", I asked slinging my piece as well, the girls did the same.

"Yeah", the shark said turning to face me. His bright pink eyes looked tired and worn out. His face was sunken in, telling me he hadn't been eating a whole lot, which I couldn't say I was surprised about. There probably wasn't a whole lot he could safely eat, "there were some others and my sister, but they went North, heading to Alaska."

"Why didn't you go with them?", I asked.

"Too weak to travel", he said, "I got a stomach ulcer from radiation sickness and I can't keep shit in my stomach but water, and sometimes not even that. They said that I'd be too much of a burden, gotta fight through the pain just to get up every morning and keep cleaning up town. I keep hoping I'll find radiation drugs in the ruins, I never do."

"I have a very, very little bit of Epinenosine left", I said dropping my pack and fishing out my last two vials, "here, I don't know if you have the means to take it, but if you do, it'll help."

"I can't pay you", the shark said, "everything I own is on my body right now.."

"Take it friend", I said, "I insist, free of charge, none of us are bothered by radiation any how."

The shark reached out, then pulled back like he wasn't sure, but eventually took it from me and put them in a pouch in his vest, offering a handshake.

"Zack Thompson", he said.

"Arien Kyvart", I said accepting, "behind you is Nero and Eirren Kyvart and Nat Foster, you may know her as The Ground Zero Ghost."

Zack turned to face Nat, "Medusa's Slave. I heard the rumors about you, doomed to walk Ground Zero forever, people I've talked to said all kinds of crazy shit about you."

"I'm just a random who got caught in something she'd rather not have anything to do with", Nat shrugged, "but I'm here now and I'm going to make the most of it."

"Aren't we all?", Zack sighed, "where are you guys headed?"

"Texas", I said, "home."

"You all from Texas?", he asked.

"I'm from Scotland", Nat said, "moved here a few years before the bombs went off."

"And Nero and I are both Canadian", Eirren said, "all brought together by God it would seem."

"Old man upstairs has kept me alive this long", Zack said, "must have a plan for me or some shit."

"Or some shit?", I asked sarcastically.

"I'd never cared much for Religion pre-war", Zack said, "not that I didn't believe in it or anything, seemed believable enough, but I was always just like...whatever. Then I saw the mushroom cloud, suddenly I found myself praying to Saint Gabriel quite a bit."

"I see that a lot nowadays", I shrugged, "people who would never be caught dead near a church are more devout now than I've ever been, probably just in thanks they survived."

"Can you blame them?", Zack asked.

"Not really no", I said, "listen brother, you tired of being alone? Wondering where your next meal will come from? Come with us, we could use an extra gun, and you can't have too many people watching your back these days."

"And if those Rabids out front were any indication of your gun skill, even better", Nat said.

Zack sighed, "it's tempting, but I don't think I'd be of any help. I'm about to starve to death, I'd just be dead weight."

"We got plenty of food", Nat said, "not like we're not gonna share if you decide to come with."

"Speaking of share", I said pulling out the pill bottle Khen had left me with, "swallow that, it'll make you immune to the radiation emitted by Nat's body, we all took it. And no, it's not poison of any kind."

"I don't know that", Zack said.

"You're right, you don't", I said, "and we have no way of knowing you're not the king of a clan of cannibals."

Zack shrugged and cautiously took the pill, "fair enough". He looked at it for a few seconds, sighed and threw it back with a swig of what smelled like Vodka from a flask in his vest. He stood there for a second and then glanced around.

"Well I haven't started hallucinating yet, that's a good sign."

"Nat", I said, "mind helping out with some proof?"

Nat set Nero and the Revolver down and unzipped her jacket halfway. Zack quickly looked away, covering his eyes.

"Whoa hold on, you don't need to start undressing."

"There's nothing to see", Nat said unlocking her helmet. She pulled it off and dropped it and her jacket to the floor. The Geigers started going fucking ballistic while the paint on the walls of the house began to peel a little bit, and the varnish on the stair case even started started to fade. Yet, everyone of us stood there unaffected. It was at this time, I saw not one, but two, looks of surprise. It struck me at that time that I was the only one that had seen Nat without her jacket on, and while it hadn't set well with me, it really,really, didn't sit well with Eirren Zack, who was pretty badly mangled in his own right.

"Dear god", Eirren said hunching over, looking like she might puke, while Zack actually did.

"Nasty!", Nero yelped backing up after getting a little bit of Zack's nasty looking bile on his fur.

I helped Eirren and Zack up, and when they collected themselves, Zack began to grill Nat.

"I don't feel the sting of radiation, but how in the fucking hell are you able to live like that!?", he asked.

"Just gotta take things one day at a time", Nat said putting her helmet back on. She locked it and then put her jacket back on, "and, I suppose not having to worry about sleep deprivation, nightmares, or other rest associated problems is a plus, regardless of how much I ache, hurt and want to just close my eyes for a few minutes."

"What do you mean not having to worry about rest?", Zack asked dry heaving, trying to stop from his insides from convulsing.

"She doesn't sleep", Eirren said, "she can't. Not really sure why."

Zack smiled and rubbed his eyes, "that's hardcore. Reminds me of that one guy who came through here about a year back. Poor bastard was wearing a suit that looked a lot like yours, but was jet black. Kid had turned into a kind of organic soup inside the suit that was designed to filter out any kind of foreign substance."

"Damn", Nat sighed, "I thought I had it bad."

"And the female that was following him? Mangled, scared and burned, but she was the sweetest thing in the world", Zack smiled, "what I wouldn't give for someone like that."

"What we all wouldn't do for love out here", Eirren said, "I know better than anyone."

"Come on brother", I said offering Zack my hand, "you're one of us now."

Zack stared blankly at me for a few seconds and then took my hand. I helped him stand.

"Welcome to the family", I smiled. Eirren and Nat gave him pats on the back. There wasn't much Nero could do in terms of welcoming gestures, except stare with his silvery eyes at where he guessed Zack may be.

"That's freaking me out what's he doing?", Zack asked.

"He's blind", Eirren said, "he just stares off into space. We think he was either born that way, or maybe he caught a glimpse of the sun before he knew any better."

Zack smiled, "ya shouldn't look up at mister sun little dude. It wasn't safe to look at before the war and it ain't safe to look at it now."

"And you shouldn't blare your music super loud", Nero said, "I could hear it when you came out of your house. So could my Dad."

"Where is your Dad?", Zack asked, "I don't see him around."

"Yes you do", Nero smiled, "he just helped you stand."

Zack looked at me, then back to Nero, then to me again.

"Uhh....".

"He's adopted", I said, "something happened to his parents and we found him hiding inside a pickup at a gas station. We figure his parents either died defending him, or maybe just up and left, he doesn't really know and by extension, neither do we."

"That's rough little dude", Zack said.

"It's okay", Nero said, "I have Arien and Eirren now."

Zack smiled. I cleared out of the house, the others followed me, Eirren and Nat in the middle with Zack bringing up the rear, shutting the door to the house tightly behind him.

"How long have you been here on your own?", I asked as Zack took his AK off his back and took it off safe.

"Uh", he sighed, 'I wanna say five weeks? Maybe a month? I always watched all of these survival shows when I was a kid, but I found out quickly when my family left me behind that I hadn't learned a lot from them. It's been hell since I was left on my own. What about you? What's your story?"

"I got tired of living where I was, so I left", I said, "I had a good thing going, logically it made no sense from a purely numbers standpoint to leave like I did, but I just wanted better. When I get home to Texas, it will make it all worth it even if there isn't a house left to go back to, which I know for an almost fact there won't be. If there is, even better."

"Sound determined as hell", Zack said.

"Yeah. Out here you kinda need to be. Texas is the goal, but if I'm honest, I'd be content just to wander the rest of my life. Not like in the movies or shows where bandits and mutants come out of everywhere, most everything died in the blast, ones who didn't turned Rabid, they're easy enough to deal with. Haven't seen more than six or seven bandits since I started this trek, and if it keeps up the way it has been we won't see too many more."

"Where'd you start from?", Zack asked.

"Northern tip of Maine", I said, "took me a few weeks to make it to Sherbrooke, but since my team has grown we've been doing a consistent 30 miles a day."

"Come a long way, that's for sure", Zack shrugged.

"Still got a long way to go", I said, "give anything for a truck that worked."

"Fat chance, less of them every month."

"Yeah", I said, "only working vehicles I've seen since the bombs fell were some old army trucks and an AC-130 that flew Overwatch for the town I used to live at."

"AC-130?", Zack asked, "wasn't aware any of the Air Force survived the Raids."

"They weren't aware anyone had survived", I said, "the Pilot said that we were the first people since they got an automated message not to return to base and keep flying, 3 years ago. Far as they knew, they were the last furs alive on the planet."

"That's gotta suck", Zack shook his head.

"It does", Nat said, "I thought that for a while before I met Khen, he was the first guy to come through the Fog after Medusa fell."

Zack didn't respond. We got through white hall without any trouble at all, and by the time it was noon, it was hot again, prompting us to stop for lunch as well as change into some cooler gear.

"What exactly do you have to eat?", Zack asked.

"An assortment of pre war foods", I said, "I know sharks don't much care for anything but meat, but it'll be food in your stomach, so try to hold your nose and force it down. Speaking of, you don't happen to have a way to take those radiation drugs do you?"

Zack shook his head, "I haven't seen an infusion kit for a very long time. Rare things nowadays."

"You can soak bandages in the medicine and let it soak into an open wound", Eirren said, "we used that technique to help out Nero when he was sick and it worked, a little too well I'd say."

"Never thought of doing it that way", Zack said, "I need to change the wrap on my leg anyway."

Zack sat down and unlaced his right boot while the rest of us went about making lunch.

"Do we have anything with a lot of meat in it?", I asked looking through my MREs, "I don't."

"Uhh", Eirren said looking through her stores, "I have pork ribs."

"I've got some sausage links", Nat said, "small ones though."

"Cook the ribs for Zack", I said, "as many problems as he's got right now, cooking shouldn't be one of them."

"Seems fair", Eirren said.

Nat and I built a Dakota fire hole and assembled one of the Tripods we'd come to love while Eirren prepared the MRE's for cooking. Since we didn't have metal pieces to make it out of, we had to go all natural, though it didn't really matter, since there wasn't an exposed flame anyway. Once the fire pit was all set up, there was nothing to do but sit around and watch the stuff cook. Good for me because I wanted a brake.

"Watching you guys work is like watching a well oiled machine", Zack commented re-lacing his boot after finishing bandaging the bite mark on his leg, looked like a Rabid Feral had bit him, teeth pattern was correct.

"Benefits of everyone being on the same page", Nat said, "many hands make light work."

"Cool", Zack said joining us by the fire, so what exactly is on the menu?"

"For you, Pork Ribs with mashed potatoes", I said, "I know you likely don't care for it, but it came with the MRE and you need to eat."

"I certainly won't turn my nose up at it if that's what you mean", Zack said, "given a choice I'd hunt some fresh meat, but I haven't seen any game in months."

"We'd all hunt fresh if we could", I said.

"Not me", Nat laughed, "at least not Pre-War me. Prewar me was a sissy."

"Pre-War me was a Trollish Barista", Eirren laughed, "and Starbucks was prime liberal hunting grounds."

"I can attest to that", Zack said, "being a former hipster and all."

"A hipster?", I asked, "thanks for that image."

Zack laughed, "yep. Skinny jeans, beanie hat, plaid shirt, all accounted for. Then one day my bio sister took me to the range. Next day I bought a Kalashnikov, haven't looked back since."

"Preach brother", Eirren said holding out her fist.

Zack bumped it.

"Peasants the both of you", Nat said, "Armalite is the way to go."

"Wait...what?", I asked, "Bio sister...?"

"Yeah", Zack said, "she died in the blast, step family left me behind. Good riddance I say, they had that "not my kid", attitude when it came to me."

"How old are you?", I asked.

"28", Zack said.

"Damn", I laughed, "got a few years on me. I'm only 24."

"Yeah", Zack smiled, "don't think it'll change things though. Way you carry yourself tells me you got a good bit'a combat experience about you. I'm ex Military and even I don't have that."

"What branch were you in?", I asked.

"Army", Zack said, "82nd Airborne. Never got deployed though."

"Same unit my old man used to roll with", I said, "don't know if he ever saw combat. Acts like he did, but I'm not sure I believe it."

"If he acts like he did he probably did", Zack said, "acting like you've been to war consistently over a long period of time isn't easy."

"I'll take you're word for it", I said leaning forward and checking my food, "I can't wait to get home. Can't fucking wait."

"Preach", Nat said, "what are we gonna do when we get there?"

"If the house is still standing, which I doubt it will be, but if it is, I'm gonna sleep in my own bed. If it's not, we pitch a tent in the back yard behind the rubble, rest for a few days, clean off the foundation and rebuild from the ground up."

"Sounds like a plan to me", Zack said.

The four of us ate lunch quickly, though we gave Zack time to eat slowly, since he hadn't had anything to eat in a few days, so if he forced it down quickly it was probably just gonna come right back up. When he was finished, we packed up and headed on down the road once again. The day wound along with the temperature growing hotter with each passing hour. It capped at around 4PM where it held steady till about six, where it started dropping off again, settling at 80 degrees by time night had fallen. It'd been a long hard day, most of which had been spent braving a brutal sandstorm that had blown in from the East. It had started shortly after we packed up lunch and had brought the hot temperatures with it. The wind alone made it hard to walk, so our pace had greatly slowed as a result and if that wasn't bad enough, the sand the storm hammered us with were like trillions of tiny razor blades. They were so tiny they were going through the weaves of our shirts and pants and cutting the skin underneath them into ribbons. We actually had to shield Zack and Nero with the blanket from my makeshift radiation suit because that was the only thing that could keep them from becoming ground chuck. Eirren and I were okay, weren't in any danger, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have all of those tiny razor blades in a place I'd really rather not have it. Nat had it the easiest, as her mask and suit were more than a match for the sand, but the weak muscles in her legs meant she had a hell of a time staying on both feet. She must have been knocked over about a dozen times, eventually becoming too dizzy to walk correctly from hitting her head so much, so Eirren and I had to carry her, easier said that done let me tell you. When the sandstorm finally called it quits, it was well after seven o' clock and we had barely gone 20 miles, but we were exhausted, with really no other way to put it. Zack's arms looked like someone had taken a cheese grater to them, Nat had a splitting headache that kept her from standing upright, Nero seemed to be in the first stages of heat exhaustion and Eirren and I were super sore from all of the sand that had been blown against our bodies and from footing Nat for a good five or six miles. So to that end, the first house we saw after the storm subsided, we invaded.

The front door had been left unlocked. It was a single story house and the front door lead us directly into a small hallway with a large room divided by a chimney stack on the left with three smaller bedrooms to the right and a bathroom directly in front of us. The carpet of the main hallway and living room had gone stale from sitting in the sun for too long, the coffee table looked like it might have been nice at one point and the leather sofa was cracked and dry rotted, but it didn't stink and was still super soft, instant pluses in my book. I set all of my gear down on the coffee table and fell into the couch with a groan.

"Holy shit", I sighed rubbing my eyes, "that was the worst day I've had in a while."

"Please talk quieter Arien", Nat said clawing at her jacket's zipper and helmet clasps, "every sound goes straight through my skull."

"Sorry", I sighed. I watched Nat screw with the locks on her suit for a few seconds before I realized her head probably hurt so bad she had lost the coordination in her fingers necessary to unlock them. She panicked when she realized she couldn't unlock it by herself, and who knows how badly she may have freaked out of Zack hadn't helped her out. When she finally got out, I could see her eyes were spinning, like they did in the cartons to show that characters were dizzy. I'd never seen it happen in real life.

"That's disturbing to watch", I said digging into my first aid kit, "hope she doesn't have a concussion."

I dug some headache medicine out of my kit. Zack said, "put it away, she's just dizzy."

"How can you tell?", Eirren asked.

"I saw my fair share of concussions when I was in the military, became kind of an expert on them", Zack said, "her eyes are rolling around, but her pupils are fine and she didn't scream in pain when I pressed my finger above her ear. That one spot will let you know for sure if a pitbull has a concussion."

"Good to know I guess", I said putting my stuff away, "I'm gonna go get cleaned up."

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.

I sighed, "fuck...gonna have to use the sock towels aren't I?"

Yep, that sure is what I ended up having to do, just a good thing it was simple decay of fabric that made them look the way they did. It was a pain in the ass to get all of the sand off me. The shit had settled in the cracks between my scales and irritated the unscaled skin on my back, chest, neck, stomach and underneath my tail to the point where the towel felt like sandpaper, it would have been easier to handle if it was damp, but since we didn't have any water, it was basically self harm, or at least it sure felt like that.

"Fucking sand", I sighed pulling on some spandex shorts and my spare X-Temp shirt which was sleeveless. I shook the sand out of my shirt, jeans and boxers as best as I could without getting sand on my clean clothes, though I don't think I did a very good job. I folded up my stuff and when I exited the bathroom, Eirren was standing there waiting to go in.

"Water doesn't work does it?", she asked.

I shook my head, "if it did I'd be a lot cleaner."

"I got this shitty sand everywhere too", she sighed.

"If it makes you feel any better, so did I."

"It doesn't", she said going into the bathroom.

Nothing in this fucking house worked. The stove was electric, the water was out and the fireplace door was rusted shut, though Zack and I managed to get that open easily enough. We managed to get a fire going to cook with and stay warm as the night wound to a close. Eirren and I 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 mated while Zack and Nat took the other two and Nero made a nest for himself out of spare blankets close to Eirren and I. The only light in the house was from the fire, and it was almost mesmerizing to look at. By nine o' clock, Eirren and I were the only ones awake, everyone else was passed out with a light snore.

"I hurt so badly", she whispered.

I pulled her close to me. It was still...odd, feeling her scales against the skin on my stomach and chest. It was an odd feeling, don't know why.

"Me too", I sighed licking between her ears, "fucking storm did a number on all of us."

She rolled over, placing both her hands on my chest, "you're all tore up."

"Like you aren't?", I asked.

She wrapped her arms around me, winding her tail around my own, "didn't say I wasn't. If I wasn't aching so bad, and if we had some more privacy, I'd ask you for a favor."

I smiled, "no favors till we get back to Texas, then, we can go at it as much as you like."

"You're killing me my boy", she giggled softly, "good night."

"Night sweetheart", I said closing my eyes.