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Though no survivor has ever completed a direct trip to and from the ruins of NYC, a rarely heard rumor by some that escaped from within say dangerous mutants other than Rabids prowl the streets at night. The rumor also states they can soak up magazines worth of punishment before dying.

We were in for a hell of a surprise later that afternoon, though to be honest, it was one of those things we kinda should have expected. As we continued to travel, the wastelands began to open up with the only features being trees that were burned almost completely to the ground and cars in various stages of decay, ranging from ones that looked like they might still drive, to cars that had been stripped of everything but the frame, and some of them even had pieces of the frames missing. The further down south we went, the more scarred and sanitized the wastes became, reminding me more and more of the far north US and Canada. I figured that since over fifteen hundred nuclear and atomic warheads had fallen across the US, this was gonna be the remainder of our trip.

"Looks just like home", Eirren commented wiping some sand out from underneath her sunglasses, "just a flat plane of grain with no end in sight."

"I gotta admit, I was hoping things would stay more like they were while we were in Vermont", Nat sighed, "at least there it wasn't just sand and carnage."

"All good things come to an end eventually", I shrugged, "such is the way of the world."

"Hey Arien, can I ask a stupid question?", Nat asked.

"Shoot", I said.

"Do you think when it mentions that the heavens and the Earth would pass away in great fire in Revelations that the writers were talking about World War Three?"

"Maybe. I always assumed it was talking about the sun going Red Giant. Earth will come back, so will most reptiles, can't say for certain about anything else though."

"You know, like I said I was never very religious pre-war, but when I read my bible at night, I sometimes wonder if the almighty could have known that us animals would eventually be capable of building a weapon that could even render his plans worthless."

"He knew", I commented, "of course he knew. I think he let us set them off just to show us how bad of an idea it was. Now I think he's just going about his business and giving Earth time to rebuild itself, keeping an eye on those who have still clung to him despite all of this. Biggest mess in the history of messes."

"Makes you wonder why people were always building stuff like nukes", Nat sighed, her suit discharging that rusty colored mist that made the Geiger's sing, "I mean what was the upside?"

"Upside is we all met", Zack said putting his arms on my and Eirren's shoulders, Nero was riding on his pack, panting heavily from the heat, but since Nat couldn't lift her arms really at all except to shoulder her rifle, Eirren had to extend her's.

"Yep", I grinned, "like Vin Diesel said in Furious Seven, "Ain't got friends."

"I got family", Nat replied, "I'd drink to that."

"Now if only we had a bottle of liquor that hadn't been shit out of someone's ass", Eirren complained.

"No such thing as good liquor anymore", Zack said, "all the fucking cannibals took it."

"You have problems with them out where you were?", I asked.

"Yeah", Zack said, "there were a few smarter Rabids in a local pack that were going out of their way to pluck and eat survivors of their own species. I don't fully understand why. Being sane and Rabid is bad enough, it was all John ever talked about. I don't understand why you'd want to throw in a rotting brain on-top of it."

"There was a Rabid who was sane enough to not kill on sight?", I asked.

Zack nodded, "John was the only one I knew of. African Grey Parrot. Always bitching about how itchy his bare skin was, the shakes, the chills, the hot flashes, headaches and the incessant need for salt."

I shook my head, "always figured being a Rabid was hell, but holy shit that sounds bad."

"People would find five pound bags of salt on scavenging runs, and John would just sit there and eat the entire bag, constantly dehydrated himself and had all kinds of problems from the intake, though if he cut it off things'id get much much worse."

"Suddenly I'm thirsty as hell", Nat said reaching into her vest for a water bottle, sighing when she unscrewed the cap, "shit, I'm outta water."

"Here", Eirren said, "you can have my last little bit."

"Thanks sister", Nat said accepting the offer, "but..what are you gonna do?"

"I've got plenty", I said, "I've been living off what water is in my food. Being a desert certainly has it's perks, but we won't last long without a full restock if another sandstorm hits. Anyone know how to tap a fire hydrant?"

"Just take the top bolt off", Zack said, "of course there has to be water in hydrant in the first place, and who knows the odds of that?"

"And to be willing to go places where fire hydrants can often be found", Eirren returned, "but I don't think that we are. At least not yet anyway."

"This could be a problem", I sighed aloud.

I don't know of you knew this by now or not, but water wasn't something that was easy to find. When I started my trip, I'd taken a gallon plus one quart with me in four one liter bottles and a one quart canteen. Being a Desert Dragon primarily, I'd been able to live the past few weeks of barely half of what was in the canteen, though the rest of my crew didn't exactly have the same efficiency that I did. I had plenty water to share, but with well over 2000 miles left to go, it wasn't enough.

"You know", Zack said, "the Hudson river literally runs along side State Four which we're on right now."

"It does?", Eirren asked checking the atlas, "huh...It does."

"Is the river clean?", Nat asked.

"Should be assuming none of Medusa's shit has found it's way down stream", Zack shrugged, "We're all immune to Medusa's shit, no offense Nat."

"None taken."

"However, I'm worried about what other chemicals and bullshit might be floating around in it."

"Well, that's what distilling is for", I said, "Eirren, how far away from us is the Hudson?"

"About a mile west", Eirren said pointing to her left, "shouldn't be too hard to get back on track once we're done."

"Well, not hard to see what we're doing next then."

We let Zack lead us from that point on because he knew the area. Ten minutes after Nat bringing up that she was out of water, we were on the banks of the Hudson, facing a new problem entirely.

"That's some fast moving river", Zack sighed, "and how in the hell are we supposed to get down this cliff?"

The river was speeding a long at white water speeds, add that to the fact there was like a seven foot, damn near vertical drop down to a very small bank, the prospects of us walking away with fresh water were slim.

"Rappelling?", Nat asked, "I have some good rope."

"A better way would be to find a somewhat clean bucket, tie it to the rope and fish the water out that way", I suggested, "or we could try and walk along the bank both ways and find a good place to get access."

"Hey Zack?", Eirren asked with the atlas still in her hands, "this thing isn't exactly Google, does Albany have boat ramps?"

"Yeah", Zack said, "there's one near Colonie Street off Route 787, can you find that on the map?"

Eirren looked at the map for a while before speaking again, "no, it's too small. Of course, once we make it into Albany, the Hudson River can't be THAT hard to find."

"It's like 500 feet from the road if I remember correctly", Zack said, "I just pray that the water isn't too badly irradiated. My stomach ulcer is bad enough as it is and I don't need to fill up on radio active shit and make it worse."

"Rule of dilution says the further down stream we go the less contaminated things are likely to be. Assuming of course no nukes were dropped on the city."

"I know they did drop a high yield Hydrogen bomb near by", Zack said, "though I'm not quite sure where it hit."

"Hmm...not sure I like that. Guess we'll just have to keep an eye on the Geiger's then."

"We seriously going into town?", Nat asked, "do I have to explain why going into a city that had been bombed is a bad idea?"

"Do we have a choice?", I asked, "ya'll need water."

"Any other time it'd be a great idea", Nat said, "but our only weapon against the amount of Rabid's that would be crawling around inside of Albany would be my radiation, and I can only sustain so much loss before I'll collapse and die. Even if I don't, it takes a long time to build it back up, and the less of it I have the weaker I am and I'm weak enough as it is."

"No one's asking you to stick your head out Nat", Zack reassured, "we can all defend ourselves just fine."

We returned to the road without saying much after that. As we continued to follow State 4 Eirren spoke up, "hey guys, the Hudson River goes through a town called Bemis Heights, it's a lot closer than Albany."

"And less populated too", Nat said, "let's hope a bunch of bandits haven't set up there."

Some time later, we passed the old sign that read Bemis Heights city limits. I couldn't read the population due to the sign being mostly scorched. The city itself was very small, I could only count three or four houses and one commercial building along with some grain silo's and an old barn that the roof had collapsed on. The houses had been burned, charred and left to fall into despair with no one around to take care of them, one of the houses even looked like it'd been the scene of a brutal fire fight, though it may have just have been larger rocks that had been picked up by winds and thrown at houses over the years, suppose there wasn't anyway to tell. The few cars that were scattered along the streets were nothing more than random piles of rust that couldn't possibly have harbored anything useful. City was quiet, couldn't hear anything other than the sounds of the wind rustling through the barren branches of far off burned trees and the rather loud sounds of the Hudson river about a 100 feet to our left.

"I like how quiet it is out here", Nat commented as we approached the river.

"It's always quiet in the wastelands", Zack said crouching down on the banks and holding his Geiger out to the water, it didn't make a peep, but he still didn't seem convinced. He set his counter down and put his hand in the water, held it there for a few seconds and then shook it off, "water seems good, though I'm not convinced it's clean."

"We can probably find the parts to build a still somewhere around here, Mason jars with lids, some sink hoses and a few connectors would work."

"Nat and I will stay here with Nero and try and get a fire going while you guys go off and get the parts we need to build a still", Eirren suggested.

"Seems like a fair deal", Zack shrugged. He and I left our packs up against a near by an old car with the rest of the girls gear. I left my AR behind, opting for my Winchester and buckshot rather than 5.56 for two reasons, one, 5.56 ammo wasn't worth wasting on whatever shit might be hiding in these houses and two, I often forgot I even owned this shotgun even after putting well over $700 worth of parts and paint into her over the years.

"Why not your M4?", Zack asked.

"I often forget I own this thing", I said inspecting the Kansas Desert camo pattern that had been plastered all over it, "bought this in January of 2017 and since then I've forgotten that I owned it multiple times. One day I remember going into my closet and finding it and going, "oh that's right, I own a 12 gauge pump gun."

Zack laughed, "how many of your other firearms do you forget about?"

I shook my head, "just the shotgun, though since I left I haven't forgotten about it much. Bridshot'll fuck a Rabid up at sub 50 yards and I find it strangely satisfying pumping a spent shell from the chamber after ripping a head off a neck."

"Never would have been caught saying that pre war", Zack said as we approached one of the houses, "know how to breach a house Army style?"

I racked a shell into my shotgun's chamber, "be lying if I said I didn't."

"Let's do it then", Zack said as we stacked up on either side of the door. I tried the knob, locked, but as fragile as the door was, it wouldn't hold up to someone spitting on it, to say nothing of a 400 pound dragon. With my back against the wall, I raised my right foot and put my boot so hard into the door that the wood shattered into splinters. Zack rushed inside with his sidearm drawn, going towards me, while when I went inside, I went towards where he'd been standing. The inside of the house was just completely trashed. The living room furniture had been burned away, leaving only the rusty frames of a couch against the back wall and two chairs in the corners. A plastic lamp that had melted into a heap sat beside a large piece of glass and plastic that at one point may have been a TV while a small coffee table that had been burned to stumpy legs held together by some steel wire at on the floor at the base of the TV. The old wooden floor creaked underneath my feet and veins of charcoal lined the walls. Broken glass and various pieces of yellow papers from books and magazines laid strewn about the floor and something crunched under foot with each step from either me or Zack. It reminded me heavily of the house that Eli stopped in for the night in the Book of Eli.

"I don't know man", Zack said from the kitchen, I heard cabinet doors open, "this sink looks pretty shot."

I walked into the kitchen , finding Zack crouched down in front of the sink. Down below it, where I usually expected to find steel braided hoses, I instead found nothing but straight rust, looking like hard water had been leaking non stop for the past three years, which may not have been that far fetched. The lines were corrugated rust with a rather large pile of it on the floor. It was dry as a bone, suggesting the leak had stopped long ago, but not before the damage had been done. Even if we could scrape all of the build up away, I doubted there was even a pipe left underneath it.

I shook my head, "yeah, it's shot, wonder if the other houses are like that?"

"If they are we may be in some trouble", Zack sighed closing the cabinet doors.

"Maybe not", I began, "see if you can find a coffee can, metal if you can but plastic will work, some rags about the same size...paper towels, anything water can soak through. Keep an eye out for the still materials as well, and while you do that, I'll start scraping some of this charcoal and ash off of the walls, I've got an idea."

Zack shrugged and started going through the cabinets and cupboards. I picked up the dog bowl in the corner of the kitchen, wiped it out with a random rag, took my combat knife and start scraping the black residue from the wall. It took a good 20 minutes, but eventually I managed to fill the dog bowl. I returned to the banks of the river to find Zack sitting with a pile of random junk ranging from metal cans, bottles, jars and rags, sitting up near a dead tree, staring at the pile wondering what my plans were.

"Exactly what do you plan to do with all of this junk?", he asked.

"Water filters", I said setting the dog bowl full of charcoal down, "did you know you can filter water with rocks, cloth, sand, ash, charcoal and other such materials? It seems complicated, but it's fairly straight forward."

I took the old Folgers Coffee can from the pile of trash and punched multiple small holes in the bottom. I put one of the rags in the bottom, then filled it with the charcoal, layered sand on top of that, some larger pebbles from the river banks, then bigger rocks and finally large stones. I cut a few straight sticks from some smaller scraps of wood I was able to pull off the houses, and a piece of metal roof I picked up was still fairly untarnished. A dunk in the river and a wipe down with a clean cloth that Eirren had made it suitable for use. I bent it into a V shape, used two Y shaped sticks from the tree Zack was under to prop it up and then tied the water filter to the sticks, positioning it over the small gutter I'd made. At the opposite end of the gutter I dug a hole big enough for the largest of the coffee cans that Zack had found and placed the gutter over it.

"There", I smiled, standing back to admire my handiwork, "all that's left is to add water."

"That's something they don't teach you in boot camp", Zack noted, "where'd you learn to do that?"

"I was real into playing with trash when I was little", I shrugged, "it was always a lot more fun than any store bought toy could ever be. I read a lot of survival books and watched a lot of post-apocalypse movies too. Picked up a thing or two."

"That's nice and all Ari", Nat said, "but...will it blend?"

I grinned, "it should, someone add some water, but not too quickly, might knock it over."

Nat grabbed one of the spare coffee cans, filled it with water from the river and slowly poured it into the filter. The nasty looking brown water soaked into my makeshift thing and dripped out the bottom nearly clear.

"Hot damn!", Zack laughed, "it works, that's fucking impressive."

"I knew that it would", I said, "what time is it?"

Eirren checked her watch, "2:30."

"Do we wanna stop and eat lunch?", I asked, "or seeing as how we have to walk an extra 500 miles to go around the city, should we just get the water to fill our bottles and go?"

"Much as I'd like to have something hot to eat", Eirren said, "I vote we just go. We don't need to be wasting time. Barring an encounter with US Army Remnants, none of us will die before dinner."

"I hate to say it, but I agree with Eirren", Nat said, "there's too far to go to be taking too much downtime."

"Nero?", I asked.

"I'm hungry", Nero said, "I want lunch."

"Zack?"

"I'm with the girls on this, we need to just go", he shrugged.

"Sorry buddy", I said looking towards Nero, "we're out voted."

"But", Nero said quietly.

"I'll make you something you can munch on before we leave buddy", Eirren said digging into her bag, "we're not gonna make you put up with starving."

Nero smiled and lay back down, "thanks Mom."

Eirren smiled, though she didn't answer. Nat, Zack and myself took turns with the water filter, filling the remaining four coffee cans to the brim with water, even searching the houses for other bottles we could carry with us to maximize the time before we had to refill again, though we didn't have much luck with that. It left us all, especially myself ans Zack, concerned with our water situation. As we were getting ready to leave our rest stop, Nat and Eirren were discussing sacrificing one of the bottles we did find so I could make another filter to carry with us, while I was getting my gear ready to go again. In the middle of strapping my shotgun to my pack, Zack came and got me.

"Hey Arien", he asked, "got a minute brother?"

"Got nothing but minutes", I said, "What have you got on your mind dude?"

"It's private", Zack said glancing towards Nero and the girls, "come here."

I set down my pack, picked up my AR-15 and followed him around a building. Once behind it, he checked again to make sure the girls weren't paying attention before turning to me.

"Do you know what we're gonna do for water once we leave here?", he asked, the pitch in his voice was that of worry.

I shook my head, "don't know yet, the Hudson doesn't stretch that much further south in the grand scheme of things. We obviously can't follow rivers the entire way home. I suppose we could go towards the coast and try to hug the ocean the way home, but given Rabid's need for high levels of salt AND water."

Zack rubbed his snout, tail swishing behind him. I couldn't exactly read what he was feeling.

"This ain't about water is it?", I asked.

"Oh how can you tell?", he asked sarcastically.

"Spit it out then", I said, "what's really bothering you?"

"Nat", Zack said.

"What about her?", I asked.

He sighed a long sigh, then dropped a rock on my head, "I'm pretty sure I'm in love with her."

"Oh really?", I asked, trying to play off the fact that I didn't quite know weather to be shocked or say I wasn't surprised, "well, what do you want me to do about it?"

"Nothing", Zack said, "I'll let her know second I can grow a pair of nuts. I just needed to tell someone."

"Should have told her", I shrugged.

"How long have you and Eirren been together?", Zack asked.

"Not long enough for sound relationship advice", I told him, "I'll tell you that right now."

"How long Arien?", Zack insisted.

"Like a week? I don't really know, too much shit going on right now for me to keep track of that."

"Only a week?", Zack asked, "I was under the impression you'd been mates for years."

"Nah", I grinned, "we will be though."

Zack sighed, "damn, oh well, I'll figure it out."

I patted his shoulder as we went back towards camp, "it'll come brother, I don't think you need to worry about it."

"Either way thanks for listening bro", Zack said as we rejoined the girls, who had finished packing. Nero was riding on Nat's shoulder's chewing on a rather large piece of beef jerky.

"Everyone got everything?", I asked.

"Almost", Nat said showing me one of the plastic water bottles, "think you can make another filter outta this?"

I took the bottle from her and inspected it.

"Maybe, got space in your pack for two more containers? If this is the filtration strategy we'll be using from now on, we should take as much of the charcoal from these houses with us at we can, because eventually the filter's will need to be reset and remade."

"Bag's pretty skimpy", Nat shrugged, "take all of the space you need. The extra weight is worth not dehydrating, and speaking of that, how are we gonna actually find the water the further south we get?"

"I don't know", I said, "if we were feeling suicidal, we could try and follow the coast."

"Guaranteed water and guaranteed swarms of salt deprived lunatics with various levels of combat skill and smarts", Eirren sighed, "wonderful way to mix the childhood fears of being disemboweled and being eaten."

"And drowning for you all", Zack sighed.

"What's drowning?", Nero asked.

"Someone holds your head under water and keeps you from breathing until you die", Zack said, "I can breathe under water by design, so someone holding my head under the water won't do anything."

"Why can you breathe under water?", Nero asked.

"I'm a shark little dude", Zack smiled, "predator of the deep."

Nero's eyes sparkled, "cool."

Everyone laughed, more so at Zack's ego than at Nero's reaction. We did end up scraping enough charcoal off the sides of the houses to fill one of the spare bottles, which Nat kept with her. I didn't have the materials necessary to put the design I had in mind for the sport bottle together, was still missing an old coke or Pepsi bottle, so I told the others to keep an eye out for it. From Bemis Heights, I gave Zack point. Hanging near the back of the group to keep Nero and the Girls in between Zack and myself, figured bandits from either direction would have a harder time fucking with two bigger males than Eirren or Nat. I stuck one ear bud in and started playing through my Hollywood undead albums on a lower setting to avoid losing situational awareness as well as conserve the seventeen percent battery I had left. Would have to charge the phone somewhere soon, wasn't sure where though. We ended up going through another town along State Four as well, shortly before Eirren had suggested we change routes, and it was a sight I could have lived my entire life without seeing.

The streets were vacant, as had been every other town I'd been too. The windows of every building around had been smashed out. Many of the broads were painted with signs that read things like "Open" or "Come In, WiFi here" a few even said, "Go away, no food." There were cars that were sitting at dead in rusted heaps at stop lights, I could easily make out the shadowy remains of their owners. The sidewalks were obliterated in a twisted tangle of concrete and sheet metal. Houses had walls busted completely out and the insides were ransacked. Cars were smashed into telephone poles, buildings, looking like someone used them as a battering ram and each other. Barricades had been thrown together out of Rubbermaid containers full of sand, couches, chairs, bed frames, shopping carts and a variety of other furniture. There was even a huge puddle in the street where someone had smashed a Chevy Avalanche into a fire hydrant. Dozens of Nuclear Shadows had been burned into the walls, cars and even the street. That same strange ash that covered Medusa's ground was present here, and the Geiger's were beginning to chirp.

"Back up, back up, back up!!", Zack frantically shouted backing into Nat, who still had Nero riding on her back, "Radiation!"

My entire squad quickly backpedaled, just far enough to get the Geiger's to stop.

"You boys okay?", Eirren asked, directing the question towards Zack and Nero.

"I'm okay Mom", Nero said.

"I think I'm fine too", Zack said, "but..what now?"

I thought for a moment, "let's get a general idea of how strong the radiation is and for how far, it's not a good idea, but it is possible that we could just sprint through it or even go around. Eirren, you fly up and see if you can locate a crater, I'll take the Geiger and march on foot and see where it's the highest, Zack, You and Nat find a place you can lay low till we return. From there we'll figure out what to do."

Eirren nodded and rocketed up into the sky, while I took out my counter and walked a decent way down main street. The radiation stayed mostly around the .3 to .9 rads a second mark. Not enough to cause immediate damage, however, it only takes 50 rads to make a mammal dead, and it takes 100 to make a fish or other sea creature dead, and given low immunity barriers, Zack likely wouldn't have an easy time of things. I wasn't worried about Zack, he could take care of himself, evidenced by his backing of me when the bandits attacked us this morning, but I was very concerned about Nero. I didn't want Eirren to have to fly him over a hot spot unless there wasn't another choice, splitting up the team was a recipe for disaster. I did find a route around the more powerful gamma radiation, though this one was peppered with Alpha waves, which wasn't a concern. Nero's fur and the film over his eyes would be more than enough to stop those, while the rest of us would be shielded by clothes and scales. I mapped the route around the hot spot and returned to where Zack and Nat were hiding out. Nero was wandering around inside the vacant lobby of the old restaurant, sniffing and looking for something interesting. Nat and Zack were sitting next to each other in one of the booths, talking quietly and keeping a close eye on Nero, there wasn't a door to knock on, so I just walked on in.

"Radiation is low, but it lasts for a good distance, walking through it would certainly be leaving you and Nero worse for wear, though I did find a way around."

"That's good", Nat said.

"Eirren come back yet?", I asked.

"Nope", Zack answered. I fished my radio from my vest and hit the talk button.

"Eirren. Have ya' got anything to report?", I asked.

"Yes", Eirren said, "but you're really, really not gonna like what I have to say."

Nero tugged on my pants leg, I looked down, finding him sitting on his tail starring at me, "Dad...why does Mom sound so....worried?"

"We're about to find out", I told him hitting the talk button again, "brake it to us hard."

"For miles and miles around, all I see are bomb craters. Radiation just where I'm at is 450 rads a second and the scars stretch as far as I can see. The worst part is that I can't see any way to avoid Albany now. We have to go through the city to get by this radiation, we literally have no choice unless we wanna back track god knows how many miles."

Nat's head hit the table and Zack buried his in his paws, even Nero sighed a sigh like his soul had just been crushed.

"That's what I was fuckin' worried about", I sighed, "come on back love, we'll plan our next move once your planted.

I hung up the radio, "well guys...looks like we're going through the city after all."

Remember that surprise I told you we were in for? Well guess what. There it is.