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Sandstorms are the scourge of the wastelands. Considered by many to be worse than Rabids and bandits, they tear siding from homes, flay flesh from bone and strip paint from rifles and cars. They vary in duration and intensity but what they lack in consistency they make up for in lethality.

Sometime later that night, I found myself awoken by Nero, the tone in his voice was that of fear. Extreme fear.

"Dad!", he loudly whispered, "there are animals outside!"

I woke up at hearing those words faster than I ever had before. I jerked myself out of Eirren's grasp, threw aside the covers and picked up my AR-15. My heart already beginning to race. I'd only been in a home defense scenario once in my life without my old man to take the lead on it, and that turned out to be nothing. Here? It was most certainly something.

"Arien?", Eirren asked groggily as she tried to figure out was going on, "what's going on?"

"Nero said there are animals outside", I said quietly racking a round into the chamber, "get Nat and Zack up."

"Fuck", Eirren snarled as she woke up Zack and Nat.

"Where did you hear them?", I asked looking down to Nero.

"I saw their shadows on the back patio", Nero said pointing to a glass back door with burglar bars on it. There was a curtain covering it, so they at least couldn't have seen inside, probably though the house was abandoned. Still, there lives were not worth the lives of my kid, mate and friends, "one of them tried to open the door but couldn't get in."

"Girls", I said as Nat and Zack picked up their firearms, "one of you use my Winchester, it's got mag rounds in it, at these ranges, it'll splatter anything. Zack, your with me, Eirren, you know our callsign."

Eirren nodded and picked up my 12 gauge. Zack, damn near naked and dressed only in a pair of spandex boxer shorts, didn't have time to put anything else on, so he just picked up his AK and threw on his bandoleer. He and I quietly went towards the back door and unlocked it. Zack slid it aside and I unlocked the burglar bars, opening them only as far as I needed to slip out into the brisk night. Easily 30 degrees or less, it set on me immediately. Zack slunk out behind me and quietly charged his AK.

"Only shoot to kill if they shoot at us first", I said, "or, if they manage to get the front door open. We don't need to A, waste ammo or B, kill someone whose just looking for a place to put up for the night."

"Got ya", Zack whispered in reply.

Zack and I snuck around the side of the house. At the edge of of one side, I began to hear activity and gave Zack the order to halt. We both stopped and crouched down while I listened to the world around me.

"Door's locked up tight", a male said, "gimme a few seconds to get it open."

"Hurry up", another guy said, "and be quiet about it. If they wake up before we get in there they'll be able to shoot back."

I gave the signal to Zack to inform him at least two targets. I made a wide arcing motion with my hand, gestured to my eyes and then my weapon, telling him that I wanted to circle around, get eyes on and confirm the number of targets before we engaged. Zack nodded in acknowledgment signaled that he'd move on my order. The moon light was bright enough that we'd be easily seen if we didn't stay quiet, and if these people had any tactics at all, half of them would be on each side of the door, meaning the minute we tried to move, there was a good chance we'd be seen. Of course, there was no way we could engage before knowing how many of them there were, which left us in an interesting spot. I didn't like the odds, but one way or another, we had to get rid of these dudes. At the risk of hitting a bullet, I stuck my head out, though I couldn't see anyone, at least not at first. I side stepped my way to the old well house that was at the far end of a small parking lot added onto the driveway and ducked into cover, peeking out from the opposite end to see if I could count targets, and count targets I did.

There were four male dragons and one dragoness, dressed ragged clothes with plate carriers over them, all carrying Bravo Company AR-15's that had gone the Key-Mod route. One guy had a long barrel and scope, the dragoness had an SBR with a surpressor, one had a drum magazine and the others looked like normal gunfighters. They looked skinny, you could smell them from a mile away and their packs and vests looked empty. Only the female dragon with the SBR looked like she had bullets to spare, and even then I could only see one magazine. I ducked back behind the well house and told Zack target count had gone up to five.

"Five targets", I whispered, "all ex military from the looks of them. From what I can tell, their guns are loaded, but only one has any extra ammo."

Zack grimaced, "Ex Military? Come the hell on...just ask me to shoot one of you why don't you."

"They stopped being your brothers the minute they started picking that lock", I mouthed.

Zack made that face that you make when you get so pissed at someone you just want to tell them to go fuck themselves, but you have to keep your cool or things will get worse, "I can't fucking shot them!"

"What the fuck was that!?", The dragoness yelped, quietly, but enough to be heard.

"Shit", one of the male's said, "they must have heard us. Time to go loud."

At that, the dragoness and the dragon with the scope broke off from the group to get me and Zack while the others kicked in the door to go after the girls and Nero. As soon as the dragoness and her partner had split off from the group, Zack and I broke from cover and dropped onto our stomachs in the sand, completely out of our adversaries sight picture. I put my dot on the dragoness' torso and just started pulling the trigger as fast physically possible, putting about six rounds on target and dropping her like a sack of iron bars. Zack's target went down even quicker, due to the fact he'd gone straight for the head shot, and a scope on a rifle of that size plus the close range left him unable to defend himself. Following a shotgun blast from Eirren and what sounded like full auto fire from Nat, the two gun fighters backed out of the house. One of them was facing us and decided that sending rounds at and forcing us to keep our heads down was probably a good idea.

"This was a fucking suicide mission!", The gunfighter shooting at us shouted to his friend, "who the hell are these people!? Delta Force!?"

"Shut up and keep shooting!", his friend shouted backing out of the house, sending bullets at Eirren and Nat, who were sending rounds right back, "We are not dying here!"

"This is friendly fucking fire!", Zack shouted, though the dragons either didn't hear him or ignored him and kept shooting. They forced to keep our heads down, Zack and I waited till the gun fire had stopped to poke out, realizing that the two bandits had decided it was a good idea to split off. I raised my rifle and intended to drop them with one shot each, but when I pulled my trigger, I got one round and then not only did the damn thing not reset, but the round that was in the chamber was either a bad one I'd picked up in the wastes that had somehow gotten mixed in with my normal ammunition, or a compressed powder charge. I got so much gas in my face that I felt myself get burned a little bit. I recoiled, damn near dropping my weapon into the sand and Zack shot the two fleeing bandits as they tried to turn on me.

"Clear outside!", Zack shouted, "Check four targets!"

"Check one target inside", Nat said as she stepped outside with Eirren and Nero in tow. Zack walked up the driveway as Eirren, still half naked as we all were, came up to me to see if I was okay.

"You okay love?", She asked.

"Yeah", I said wiping the gun powder out of my eyes, "my rifle gassed me though, pretty sure I had a compressed powder charge, or bad ammo or maybe I blew up a case and had a detonation of a second round outside of the chamber. Either way I'm pretty sure my Binary Trigger is fucked."

"Damn", Eirren sighed. She slung her double barrel over her shoulder, looking up the driveway towards Zack, who was crouched beside one of the bandit's he'd shot, looking like he was about to start crying.

"Zack's first kill?", Nat asked.

"I don't think so", I said. The bunch of us walked up the driveway to where Zack was sitting, curled into a fetal position, it wasn't hard to tell why. He and the bandit had matching ink, 82ndAirborne 1st Battalion 505th Infantry.

"Oh my", Nat gasped crouching down to comfort Zack, "did you know him?"

"No", Zack sighed, "still feels like I stabbed a brother in the back though."

"You shouldn't", I said, "he would have put a bullet in you given half a chance."

Zack sighed, using his AK to push himself up, "you don't get it Arien. It's impossible for you to get it, you gotta spend time wearing the uniform overseas before you get it."

"Yeah maybe", I answered, "but the next time I tell you to fucking shoot someone, you shoot them. These guys would have killed the both of us given half a chance and god only knows what they would have done to the girls and Nero."

"I get it", Zack sighed going back to the house.

There was silence among me and the girls for a few seconds before Nat spoke up.

"Want anything done with these guns and bodies Ari?"

"Umm", I thought aloud slinging my rifle, "let's bring the rifles and vests inside. Skinny as they are we're not getting ammo from them, their weapons are chambered in 300 Blackout from the sounds of them, so it's pointless to take them. I'll look it all over in the morning and maybe we can do something with them."

"I'll gather the vests", Eirren said.

"Guess we'll get the rifles then", I sighed.

Nat and I gathered the lose guns and brought them inside, setting them near our pile of gear. Eirren stacked the vests up beside the couch and when everything was said and done, we were left with one daunting question.

"So who the hell get's guard duty?", Zack asked, "we can't very well all sleep at once after this little problem."

"I don't sleep anyway", Nat shrugged, "I'll take the shift and you guys sleep."

"Thanks sister", Eirren yawned.

"No shit", I said, "by the way, your AR automatic? Sounded like you were running on full auto when those dudes kicked the door in."

"Yes", Nat said, "Ben and I both built M4's when we became citizens. It was a pain in the ass, but since we didn't have kids, we could afford it."

"I see it coming in handy later on down the road", I said slinking back into bed with Eirren. Nero wedged himself in between us and quickly fell back to sleep, so too did Eirren. It took me some time to follow, seeing as my brain was going through all of what could have happened if Nero hadn't seen them, what would have happened if my AR had failed sooner, and on and on, just like it did when I shot that hole in my floor all those years ago. But eventually, sleep found me too.

Early the next morning, I woke up to the rays of the sun touching my still hurting face. I rubbed my eyes and peered out the back porch window, the sun hadn't come fully up yet, though it would be soon and already given the temperature in the house, we were in for a hot one. Nero was still asleep, Eirren was awake, though she looked like she hadn't slept very well last night.

"Didn't sleep well huh?", I asked.

She shook her head, "No. My mind was running wild on what could have happened if Nero didn't see those assholes coming."

"Feeling's mutual", I sighed, "if my rifle had decided to brake a round earlier."

"Yeah no shit. Do you have another trigger to put in it? Or parts to fix the one in it right now?"

"I have my stock trigger, Mil-Spec that my Dad and I polished and tuned some years ago. Heavier than my Binary one but I can run it right at the limit of my abilities without worrying about Hammer Follow."

"Well, some good news at least", She sighed.

"What time is it?", I asked pushing aside the covers and slipping into my jeans, "any idea?"

Eirren shook her head.

"Nat? Know what time it is?"

"About 7:30", she shrugged.

I yawned, "time was I used to sleep till ten in the morning. Not so much any more. Damn bombs. Ruined everything."

"You can say that again", Nat agreed, "give anything just to be at home watching TV. Sadly my apartment was incinerated, but at least I no longer have to pay rent to the inglorious bastard who owned the damn place."

I chuckled, "you really didn't like your landlord."

"He was an ass", Nat said, "Time and time again we bitched at him to get the stupid building fixed, or at least to kill the green thing that lived in the stairwell."

"Green thing?", Eirren asked coming up for air from her canteen.

"No one knew what the hell it was", Nat shrugged, "it was about the size of a Hersey bar, it lived in a hole in the baseboard and people claimed they'd had it move furniture in their apartments."

"You had a machine gun", I stated lacing my boots, "why didn't you just cap it?"

"Two reasons", Nat said, "no threaded barrel. Can't fire a weapon inside the city limits unless it's suppressed and two, no way in HELL was I, at 5'9 120 pound pit going near something the size of a candy bar that could move a 300 pound couch."

Eirren giggled, "a flash surpressor might do you some good. That rifle on full auto is a fire works show"

"Don't want it", Nat said, "flash suppressors ruin the fun of getting to see the gigantic ball of fire every shot and not everyone wants to be gassed by their allies rifles."

"Arien", Zack said coming back inside as I buttoned up my shirt, I hadn't noticed he was gone, "your Odin Works Compensator gasses something fierce. I used to run a Lantac on my AK and thought they were bad. But that thing is next level."

"Yeah", I smirked, "there really isn't anyway I can safely fire the thing with people standing within six feet of it's muzzle."

"By the way...I want to apologize for last night. I shouldn't have defied orders, especially from someone with much more wasteland experience than I have."

"Did what your gut told you to do", I shrugged, "can't say that I blame you. Water under the bridge brother, we're all still here."

"Yeah", Zack sighed.

"Well let me get my old trigger and scope back onto my rifle and we'll head on out."

"While you do that I'm gonna get some of these Key Mod parts off of these guys", Nat said, "could use some of the things they've got."

"Same here", Zack said.

"Why not just use M-LOK?", Eirren asked.

"Key Mod is superior to M-LOK", Nat said, "always has been and always will be."

"Yeah, don't think so", I stated, "M-LOK was easier to manufacture, cheaper and had support from Magpul, Key Mod didn't."

"But BCM threw all of their weight behind Key Mod", Zack said, "BCM is a bigger company than Magpul ever was."

"Not quite", I said fishing the trigger out of my pack, "everyone who had an AR-15 knew about Magpul. I can't say the same for BCM."

I popped the take down pins on my AR and punched out the trigger pins, which allowed me to lift my BFS right out, where I realized that the trigger wasn't that badly damaged itself, though it still wasn't a good idea to run it in the state it was in. I dropped my mill spec trigger back in, cleaned all of the shit that had been building up the barrel for the last few days and recoiled it, putting it all back together and doing a functionality test. I pulled the charging handle back, let it fly forward and then pulled the trigger. I heard the hammer click, pulled the charging handle while holding the trigger down, let the bolt fly forward and let the trigger go. I heard a click and then pulled the trigger again, another click. With that done, I removed the Hybrid Optics I'd been using since I left home and replaced them with a SigSauer short dot that I'd gotten pre-war for around 200 dollars. Wasn't an expensive scope, but it'd served me well. One of the good things about it was it was on a QD mount, so it retained zero no matter how many times I switched it out so long as I returned it to the same spot.

"Good to go", I said putting away the swapped out parts. I grabbed my vest and pack, threw them both over my shoulder, "what about you guys?"

"Gimme about 5 more minutes", Nat said. She'd taken the .300 short barrel upper and tied it to her pack along with all of the extra .300 ammo she could find, which wasn't a whole lot. She'd lifted a bunch of parts from the long rifle set up their sniper had been running and I questioned why she wanted to screw up the paint job by mounting a bunch of worthless shit to her rifle. When Nat and Zack had finished stealing from the dead, we stepped outside. The morning air was damp and slightly crisp. A strong, dry breeze was blowing in from the South, a good indication that another sandstorm wasn't that far behind.

"Feels like another storm's coming", Nat sighed.

"And we're gonna be walking right into it too", Zack sighed, "shit. Bandits didn't kill us but those zillions of tiny razor blades might."

"Is zillion even a legit number?", Eirren asked.

Zack shrugged, "I don't know but even if it isn't my point still stands."

"Well let's keep going and see if we can stay ahead of it", I suggested.

And so we did. The wind picked up and dropped throughout the morning, keeping the air moist and the temperatures low. It'd been a long time since we'd had a legitimately nice day and not a hot day, so it was a welcome change of pace, though it was just more sign that winter was coming and once it started snowing, shit would get a lot harder. Snow, Ice and Freeze Lightning with the occasional hailstorm tossed in would make traveling nearly impossible, and no way was I waiting till spring to go home. Eirren was on the map most of the morning trying to figure out our route once we made it to Greenwich and when we did reach the city limits, she folded up the map and reported her findings.

"Well...I can't say that I have good news. Just bad."

"Give it to us straight then", Zack sighed.

"There are a couple of ways around Albany, however, there aren't any we could do in under a week if we choose to give the city a wide berth. If we go through it, we can clear it in an afternoon, so long as we're willing to spend bullets on bandits and fight with Rabids, because if we go through that city we will be seeing at least one of those things. Now for the worse news."

"It get's worse?", Nat asked.

"If we go through Albany and stay on Interstate 87, we'll end up going right past NYC, within 5 miles of the city limits actually."

Everyone on the team swallowed hard. New York City was a radioactive, contaminated hell hole. It was crawling with all the horrors of the wastelands and then some. No survivor that had gone near NYC had ever come back, either killed by bandits or eaten by one or more of the many, many Rabids that lived there. Those that hadn't been killed by the fallout from the six nukes dropped on the place went Rabid, and there were 20 million people in that fucking city when the bombs fell. Do the math. We could never carry enough ammunition, nor wold our knives last that long.

"Son of a bitch", Zack groaned, "fucking NYC. No thank you. It wasn't a nice place pre war!"

Nat shook her head, "nope...nope, nope, nope, nope, nope so much nope."

"I'm still not done yet", Eirren sighed, "with our current location being the way it is and with the way you Americans built these mother fucking roads, we can reach the tip of Albany go through...Schenectady...I think I just butchered that name, get on interstate 90 and follow it up to I-88 and avoid Albany entirely."

"So where the hell is the but in that sentiment?", Nat asked.

"I'm getting there", Eirren continued, "it IS possible for us to avoid the big cities, but to do that, we have to get on I 86, follow that till we hit the exit to I-90, follow that for a few dozen miles, then we get on State 15, follow that to I-180, then get back on interstate 80. We can follow that right between the two biggest cities in Pennsylvania without too much trouble, assuming we're willing to walk off road for a while. Once we do that, we can follow Interstate 69 to I-79, and we'll be very far away from most big cites."

"What would we do without you Eirren?", Nat asked.

"Wander aimlessly around the wastelands for a very long time", she smiled sheepishly.

"Probably, probably", I smiled.

"Let's take down some brush", Zack said, "we have a long way to go."