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The survivors in the Wastelands can be divided into two categories, survivors and Rabids. While technically survivors, Rabids are crazed, salt deprived lunatics that vary in combat skill and intelligence. Rabies affects everyone differently, some people can keep their minds together enough to care for and operate firearms, understand speech and don't have the urge to eat others, however, most Rabids will eat anything that doesn't smell like one of them. Shotguns and grenades are the best defense against them.

When I was younger, I used to wander around in the pasture behind my house quite a bit. More than I should have to be honest. Sometimes I was by myself and sometimes I was with my brothers and sister, though no matter who I was with, one thing remained the same. The further we went out, the more of a thrill we got, and as I've gotten older, it still hadn't changed it would seem. The closer we drew to the New York State Capital, the more anxious I got, but for all of the wrong reasons. I'd seen plenty of carnage since the bombs fell, but what was going on here in Albany was a hundred eighty degree different kind of terrifying. There wasn't a single building that had been spared damage from the bombs. It wasn't like other cities where you had buildings that were damaged, and then you had the ones that looked worse for wear but weren't damaged, here, every single building had a gash pulled out if it in some way or another. Cars lined the sides of the road in rusted hunks, random bleached bones accented the piles of broken glass, scrap stone and steel along with gnarly looking splinters of wood that would give Dracula nightmares. The crows that I'd seen a lot of in Canada were making themselves at home in the eves of a near by building with the top half broken off of it, God only knows where the hell it'd gotten off too. Familiar puddles of light showed their face once more, reminding me I could never fully escape the Wastelands no matter where I went. But the city's defining feature? It's residents. I could smell them, we all could, hiding in the darkness of the buildings near by, watching, waiting for us to make a fatal mistake. Though by entering the city in the first place,I felt like we'd already made it.

"Fuckers", Zack hissed. I'd never heard a shark hiss before, certainly wasn't something you'd wanna hear in the dead of night, "damn Rabids are watching us from the shadows."

"Hard to miss their scents", Nat gagged, "even through the suit it's bad, must be hundreds of them in this damned city."

"You'd think Albany would be sterile after all of the bombs that had been dropped a mere mile and a half away", Eirren noted.

"No shit", Nat sighed, "sure there's no way around this deathtrap sister? I'm not much liking the idea of having to spend too much time here."

"Unless you wanna cross the Hudson", Eirren said, "no. The Radiation Zone around Albany stretches for miles, but we still have a clear path through the city."

"Is crossing the Hudson a viable option?", Nat asked, "I could use a bath myself."

"The Hudson ain't exactly known for being clean", Zack shrugged, "My Dad got stuck with a needle swimming in the Hudson once. It didn't end well."

Nat sighed, "couldn't we float across the damn thing in barrels or something? Come on guys, stop being bearers of bad news, it doesn't help anyone."

"Even if we could", Eirren began, "it's not a good idea. Capsizing means certain death. With all of the death we've avoided these past few years, drowning isn't exactly on my list of ways I'd like to go out."

Nat sighed, "Dammit Eirren."

Eirren shrugged. Albany proved to be more treacherous the further we went, staying quiet simply wasn't possible, not only due to the rubble under foot, but due to the fact that there were traps all over the city, ranging from tripwires to makeshift landmines, dead falls, car alarms rigged with proximity detectors and we even ran across a few rigged shotguns. I wasn't sure who'd set all of these traps, but I didn't want to meet them. The day grew longer, the sun slowly starting to tire and fall from it's perch in the sky, with it's descent, something new came in. The sky grayed, dark clouds rolling in from the same way we were headed, South. With the clouds, the wind picked up and the air grew colder. I had a feeling I knew what the clouds were bringing, and Zack outright confirmed it.

"Think it's about to start snowing soon", he sighed.

"Yeah, it needs to not do that", I answered. I mentioned this earlier, but the Wastelands have two seasons, Summer and Winter. Guess which one this is? Every year when the snow came down, the Heat and Sun went away and an entirely new set of problems came out to play. Temperatures in the day went from a hundred and ten averages to 20 or lower at the most, with it dipping below zero a lot of the times. Nights, already cold, got worse. Add to that snow that melted the second you touched it, leaving you soaking wet and ice underneath it? It was a reptiles worst nightmare. This was all before crazy windstorms whipped up. Normally in the winter, the wind blew fast, hard and for a very long time. Windchill factors made the temperatures even lower and intolerable to the point where dropping you guard against it for as much as a minute could have you turning blue in the face and freezing to death. On top of frigid weather, killer wind and soaking clothes, I hadn't seen a Rabid yet that wasn't smart enough to put on extra clothes when Jack Frost rolled around. If you'd spent all this time thinking that Rabids ran around nude, you'd be mistaken. They're crazy, but they aren't stupid.

"Set in early this year", Eirren noted, "we didn't get snow till mid November last year."

"We got it around the first January this year", I said, "last winter was warm for the part of Maine I was in. What about you Nat?"

"Only weather at Ground Zero was the change of the sky from grey to black when night fell", Nat replied, "Weather just didn't happen there. Not sure why."

'What's snow?", Nero asked.

"It's like rain, except more annoying and colder", I told him, "time was animals used to love snow days. It used to be associated with fun and getting out of work or school, now all it brings is death and Rabids."

Nero shook his head.

"Hey guys we need to start thinking about some kind of shelter here", I suggested, "it's close to sundown and if it's gonna start snowing it's probably a good idea to find a place to camp out for the night."

"Think any of these old building's would work?", Eirren asked.

"Maybe if we can get lucky and find one that doesn't have Rabids in it", I sighed, "no telling which building's are occupied and which aren't with the way the smell of these freaks is rolling around."

"What about a hotel?", Zack asked pointing to a small Best Western Premier that looked somewhat structurally sound, though the outside was scorched in about a dozen different places and many of the windows were broken out, the building itself should be safe. Of course should is a very dangerous word out here. Many animals have been brutally maimed or even killed by trips and targets that _should_have been easy to take. I didn't like to take chances before and I sure as hell didn't like the idea of taking them now.

"Seems stable", Eirren noted, "but is it full or Rabids?"

"That is the question", I thought aloud, still unsure of how I wanted to go about this. It was too late for us to retreat into the countryside for the night, we'd come too far into the city to turn back, but a hotel wasn't exactly the easiest to defend.

"What do you wanna do Ari?", Nat asked.

"Whatever gets us out of the cold the quickest and keeps us the safest from Rabids", I answered, "as much as I hate the idea of doing this, we have to split up. Nat, you and Zack go see if you can find some bleach, ammonia, vinegar, whatever you can that will mask our scents and throw the Rabids off our tails, bring as much of it back as you can, Eirren and I will see if we can find a good spot inside the the hotel that's close to the fire escape or has a good window we can rappel out of if we need to beat it quickly."

"Meet in the hotel lobby in 30 minutes?", Zack asked.

I nodded, "yeah, then we can sweep and clear the entire hotel as a team."

"Rodger", Zack said taking his AK off safe, "before we clear outta here, what are we gonna do if we can't find any of what you mentioned?"

"Bridge we'll cross when we get there", I said, "for now, one thing at a time."

Zack and Nat stepped away from the group, while Eirren and I moved inside the hotel. It didn't take but stepping through the front door to realize that spending the night here might just be suicidal. The lobby may or may not have been nice at one point, but now it was nothing more than a burned out husk that had been left to fall into despair. It looked like a fire had been allowed to rage here unchecked for some time, due to the amount of damage to the building. The floors for a good three stories up had been burned totally out, allowing us to see the ceiling of the fourth or fifth floor, though I wasn't sure. The furniture in the lobby had all of the cloth and wooden pieces burned away, leaving piles of rusted coil springs and metal skeletons, while the piping was visible through parts of the walls and the walls themselves looked like they had huge, dirty wounds that had never healed correctly.

"Damn", Eirren sighed lowering her AK, "I've seen some trashy buildings, but this is something else. How the hell does it look somewhat respectable from the outside?"

"My guess was the fire wasn't really hot enough to damage the steel frame and stone siding from the inside", I shrugged, "stone and steel aren't exactly known to be flammable."

"Good point", Eirren replied as Nero got off his shoulder and started sniffing around, "watch your step buddy. Lots of broken glass and rusty nails around. It'll tear up your paw pads."

"Okay Mom", Nero said as he continued to look around the building.

She turned back to me, "we can't spend the night here, I can't count the number of things that could go wrong."

"Me either", I said getting on the radio, "Guys, got something to report."

"Send it", Zack said.

"Hotel's a bust", I told them, "inside is burned to shit and structurally insecure, looks like it could all come crashing down at any second. I can see the ceiling of the fifth floor from the lobby."

"Damn", Zack sighed, "do you want us to come back?"

"Only if you have what we need", I said, "Hotel or not, we need something to wash out our scents."

"Got ya", Zack replied, "we'll keep digging and come back when we find something. Keep us posted on weather or not we'll have a roof over our heads tonight."

"Rodger", I said hanging up my radio.

"So...what now?", Eirren asked.

I thought for a moment, "I'm not sure. I dislike the idea of spending a night in the city at all...but...how much can you carry when you fly?"

"If you're getting at what I think you're getting at, there's no way in hell I can fly us all outta here', Eirren said, "I do not have the power, nor the stamina."

"No, that's not what I'm suggesting at all", I continued, "what I'm suggesting, is you find us a clear way out of the city, then we find a car that works and drive out of here."

"Fat chance of that working", Eirren said, "even if I could find a route out, and a car that worked, gas goes bad after three years."

I sighed, "got any other ideas then?"

She shook her head, "no."

"Well...let's split up. I'll take Nero and go scout some of these buildings, and while I do that, you get airborne and see of you can see anything of interest."

"Sounds like a plan to me", Eirren said as I picked up Nero and set him on my pack. The three of us walked out the front of the building and Eirren took to the skies. I checked my watch, it was still 20 minutes to rendezvous, should still be time to find a place that we could lock up for the night. I started walking down the street, trying the bars and doors to every house one at a time. I couldn't kick in a door that was locked, which would leave the house insecure, so I needed one with a door that had been left unlocked, and that proved to be hard to find. I must have tried six or seven houses and was going on number eight when Nero suddenly hopped off my pack.

"Dad...do you smell that?", he asked.

"Smell what buddy?", I asked, "all I can smell is salt and musty wood."

"It smells like a coyote", Nero said.

I sniffed the air and now that he'd brought it to my attention, I could certainly smell the blood on the air. It was hard to pick out over the smell of the Rabids and old wood, but it was there. Nero and I followed the smell a ways down the street, eventually arriving at a drainage vent in the side of the road with the smell coming from it. Nero peered down inside the hole and sniffed the air again, looking back up at me.

"She's down here", Nero said, "I can smell her."

I dropped down to my stomach, took my flashlight off my vest and shined it into the hole. Perched atop a scary small ledge with a good 20 or 30 foot drop into the extensive sewer system below, was a tiny Coyote Puppy. She didn't seem like she was any older than Nero, but she was like half his size, maybe smaller. Her coat was black with mud, sludge, or some other grimy black substance, was hard to tell, her eyes were shut. She had a hideously large gash out of her sides, the top of her head and all the way down her back. Her left ear had what looked like a bullet hole in it and there was a nail stuck clean through her left paw. She was being totally still, either that, or she was dead. Given her appearance, it was likely the latter, but I just couldn't tell one way or the other.

I looked back towards Nero, who looked extremely concerned, "Dad...we're not just gonna leave her down there are we?"

I shook my head, "No, no we're not."

I picked up my radio, "Nat, Zack, I've got a few more items to add to the grocery list."

"What we need?", Zack asked.

"Any kind of soap you can find, be it shampoo or laundry detergent, something that won't be toxic to damaged skin. Any kind of alcohol for disinfectant, bandages and super glue if you can find it, if you can't just bandages will suffice and vegetable oil, just in case this black shit is tar. Nero found a little Coyote puppy in a drainage vent and I can't tell if she's dead or not, if she's still kicking she needs to help fast or she won't be alive much longer.."

"Alright", Zack replied, "we'll do what we can. List is getting long though."

"I know, I know, but this is important so don't leave anything unsearched."

I hung up the radio and set my rifle and pack down near a rusted car and returned to the drainage vent peering down inside. There wasn't anyway I could move the 250 pound manhole cover out of the way to get to her by myself, so for now, I just had to determine if she was alive or not and it really didn't look like she was, and if she in fact was, then she was minutes away from death if we didn't get her out of this drain and cleaned up. Eirren joined me on the ground, landing behind me with a thud and making her presence known.

"She down there?", She asked coming to my side.

"Yeah", I said, "if she's alive, she won't be for much longer if we don't get her the hell outta there, help me with this manhole cover."

Eirren and I found some pieces of rebar from the piles of scrap on every street corner and bent them enough so that we had tools with witch to remove the cover, a feat that wasn't easily accomplished by even the strongest Southern dragons and made even harder by the fact that this one seemed to be screwed into place, not by screws, but by threading on the cover and it's mount. Excellent, as if the job wasn't hard enough already, if only we had an Elephant to help us. After some time of fighting with the cover and going exactly nowhere, Nat and Zack showed back up, a rusted shopping cart full of damaged containers of bleach, laundry detergent, veggie oil, some various unscented shampoo's and rubbing alcohol. As great as it was, we had minutes till sundown and a long way to go to get this cover off. Even when Nat and Zack both pitching in, it was still nearly impossible to get that mother fucker open and when we did, it came out with a loud metallic pop, similar to what you get when you pull the cork out a wine bottle. Zack and the girls moved the heavy cover out of the way as I dropped to my stomach and reached down to get the little pup from her perch inches away from certain death. Getting hold of her told me that yes, she was alive, but very weak and two, it was tar that she was stuck in, and there was a lot of it.

"Fuck!", I growled, "she's glued to that perch by tar! I need at least a few minutes to cut her out."

'We don't have a few minutes Ari", Eirren said as the sun sank behind the clouds, the darkness setting in fast, "this place will be crawling with Rabids in about 30 seconds."

"I had better work quickly then", I protested, "gimme the E-Tool from my pack."

I held one paw out. When the E-Tool didn't come, I snapped my fingers in annoyance, "sometime today please! We can't leave this pup here overnight!!"

"Here", Zack said handing me the extended shovel. I pulled it down into the hole and used it to scrape the tar away from the base of the perch, trying to see if I could find where the safe space to ram the razor bladed tool in was. Instead, I ended up finding something I really wish that I hadn't. I realized that the tar was the only thing that had kept this little pup from plummeting the 30 feet to her death for God only knew how many days. The piece of metal she was laying on only extended for about half the distance that I originally thought it did. Simply put, I cut her out the tar, she was going straight down to death.

"Shit in a pantry", I snarled.

"What now!?", Nat asked in an angry voice.

"The tar is the only thing keeping her from falling 30 feet to her death, someone find a big board that we can use to support her while I cut her out."

Zack went off and came back about a half a minute later with a huge 2x8 and stuck it down into the vent, pushing it tightly against the wall. The board was more than wide enough that I could safely cut the pup out of the glue trap without risking her falling to her death.

"That's good hold it right there", I said running the shovel over the tar, the razor blade I kept on it's edge worked through it like wet tissue paper, and within no time at all.

"That's it I got her", I said throwing the shovel out of the hole and pulling the exhausted puppy from the sewer.

I handed the little pup off to Eirren and quickly grabbed my gear, strapping everything as tightly as I could and warped her up in an old blanket I'd found sometime ago that I kept strapped to my bag, "lets get out of the open before the Rabids come out."

"I found a good place we can hide", Eirren said, "two story house a few blocks down the road. It's not locked and there are bars on the window and inside the front hallway. Nothing will be getting in unless we let it. I didn't stop to check the entire house, so we may have to do some sweep and clear before we move in."

"Lead the way", I said, "Zack, you carry Nero, Nat you bring up the rear and guys."

"Yeah?", Nat asked.

"If it moves, kill it."

Eirren led us down the street with her AK in her shoulder and finger hovering over the trigger. Nat brought up the rear, the safety selector on her M4 was set for fully automatic, and it was clear she intended to cut lose on anything that dared to move in the darkness that had engulfed the entire town. The only light was from Eirren and Nat's weapon lights, and the small thing I kept on the bottom of my Sig. Announcing our position to every Rabid in the city? Sure. But it was better than falling and having hundred pound packs push our faces and chests into razor sharp pieces of steel, glass and wood. Eirren led us to a red brick two story house with a total of six windows all covered in heavy iron bars that weren't there to look good, but to keep everything short of a main battle tank from entering. Just testing them made me wonder how much damage could be done to a Rabid simply by warping them in barbed wire. Mental note. At the front door, Eirren stopped and slung her Ak over her shoulder, exchanging it for her combination gun, as far as I knew, it was still loaded with dragon's breath.

"Dragon's breath inside is a bad idea", I said.

"I know", Eirren said, "how many of those Magnum 000 buck rounds you have?"

"All of my shells are 000 buck", I told her.

"Loan me some, they back a wicked punch out of this longer 20 inch barrel."

I just threw her my entire bandoleer of 100 shells. She put it over her shoulder and switched out the DB rounds for the buck and then opened the door, quietly stepping inside and clearing the way for us. The house, at least what of it I could see, was unfurnished, with some of the appliances in the kitchen being wrapped still. Zack hauled the old shopping cart inside with Nat's help and pushed it into the living room. He took the gallon bottle of bleach, walked outside and poured a copious amount if it back some of the way we'd come and even splattered it on the door and steps before closing the door and then the burglar bars, locking and dead bolting them both. We still weren't safe yet. Nat went with Eirren upstairs to check for Rabids, and a few minutes later, after not hearing scuffles or the sound of a shotgun, they came back downstairs, looking relaxed.

"Coast is clear", Eirren said quietly, "for now."

I set my pack down in the hallway and went to the kitchen. Setting the now crying puppy on the counter, I realized she'd somehow managed to get both her eyes open. They were a fantastic, super bright purple, but the contained a look pf pure desperation and utter exhaustion. No way she'd slept at all in the past few days and I figure she was probably super dehydrated. Nero hopped up on the counter to comfort her while I tried the water. The sink made a sound like water wanted to come out, but then went quiet. Of course the water didn't work, because why would it?

"Can't one fucking thing go right today?", I growled, wanting to put my fist through the wall.

"Water don't work?", Zack asked.

"No of course the water doesn't fucking work!", I snarled rubbing my snout, "did you really have to ask me that?"

I took a deep breath, exhaled slowly and moved both my hands down to my sides in a sweeping fashion, "okay okay...Um, Zack. Gimme the bottle of Veggie oil, we gotta get this tar off her, no telling what kind of diseases are waiting to get into those nasty wounds she's got."

I put the plug in the sink and Zack emptied the entire gallon of veggie oil into the sink. I set the little puppy, slab of tar and all, into the oil. It was just enough to submerge the tar, but not enough that it would drown our new friend. Nero lay down at the edge of the sink and looked at me, the expression in his face said it all.

"No sleep tonight huh buddy?", I asked petting his head.

"I doubt it", Nero sighed. He couldn't see her, but she could see him. I suspect that she'd never seen another Feral her age before, or just thought he was cute, because her eyes sparkled when she looked at Nero in the same way that I felt about Eirren. I wasn't the only one that noticed it either.

"Hey Arien", Zack said tapping me on the shoulder.

"Yeah bro?", I asked.

"Come here, we need to talk."

I followed Zack from the kitchen into the empty living room, where Nat and Eirren had started trying to set up bedding.

"It's gonna be a long night, I have a feeling", Eirren sighed as she peered out the window, "Rabids are all over the streets."

I took a covert glance out the window. Numbers of Rabids were easy hundreds, but no where near as high as I'd expected. I figured this close to NYC and some other big cities, Rabid count was going to be high, which means our only defense was stealth and mobility. They didn't look like stupid ones either. Two of them that I could see were kitted out in military gear. Multicam, NOD's and rifles's accounted for, sitting on the roof of a rusted car smoking cigarettes, while most of the other's seemed more Feral. The two in the gear, clearly had radio's that worked, and seeing that they seemed to be carrying on a conversation while they smoked, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to contact them, they looked like the first guys that hadn't been screwed over completely by the bombs, minus the Rabies of course.

"Check out these two Rabids on the roof of the rusted Chevy Malibu about 35 yards away", I said as Eirren and I pulled back from the window, "they've got full army gear and radios that work, you guys may not have natural night vision, but you should beable to see the buts of their cigarettes."

"I see them", Zack said, "they look like they should be wearing I'm with stupid shirts...do we try and contact them?"

"Hell fucking no we don't", I said, "military or not, they're still Rabid, which means they're still salt deprived flesh hungry lunatics, and to top that off they're packing serious heat."

Zack huffed, "those gun's ain't loaded. They never are."

Eirren crossed her arms, "Zack...do you need a Canadian to explain to you how stupid what you just said is?"

"I've yet to meet a single survivor besides you guys who had ammunition to back up the fancy rifle they plucked from a ruin."

"Golden Rule of gun safety brother", Nat said as they pulled back from the window, "every gun is loaded."

"No one has had to remind me of that for a while", I shrugged, showing the steel cased round that hung from the rail of my weapon, "I learned that lesson the hard way."

"Fair enough", Zack said, "army part of me wants to trust them. Survivor part of me says hell no. Can't decide which part I should trust more."

"Survivor part", I told him, "and speaking of survivor, the puppy I pulled out of that hole is alive and she's got the will to live, I could see it in her eyes."

"That's good", Nat sighed in relief, "make sure she gets the pill because I'm not wearing my suit all night."

"I will", I said, "now, bad news for us is, the veggie oil needs 12-24 hours to soften the tar enough so we can pull it off, well, we don't have a day or two to camp here. I want out of this fucking city as soon as possible, so every 30 minutes, someone will have to check on her, ideally, two people pull guard duty for six hours tonight, and the other two sleep, halfway through the night we'll change shifts. Nero will be "watching", her", I said using air quotes, "but I'd rather have someone whose not another puppy taking care of her. Tomorrow, the tar should be soft enough we can get the biggest of the chunks out, then we can go to the Hudson river and use the water from that to shampoo the rest of the nasty shit out of her coat."

"Hudson water isn't that clean", Zack commented, "What's the point of washing with dirty water?"

"Wont matter just to rinse shampoo from her coat", I said, "especially if we retreat her wounds after words. If it snows tonight, we can just use it."

"Fair enough", Nat said, "but, only one other person needs to stay up. I can't sleep remember?"

"Right", I said, "I'll take first shift with you then."

Nat nodded.

"I'll take second", Zack said as I went back into the kitchen, finding that Nero and little Coyote girl were quietly talking with one another.

"No", Nero said, "the dragon is my adopted Dad. My bio dad died defending us from bandits."

"I never knew my Dad", the little Coyote replied, "My Mom says he was killed shortly after the war ended by radiation."

"What happened to your Mom?", Nero asked.

"I...don't know", she answered quietly, "I just remember the grenade coming and the big Feral dragon kicking me into the drainage vent. I've been stuck there sense."

"What did this dragon look like?", I asked approaching them. The little Coyote looked up at me.

"Your Nero's Dad?", she asked.

I smiled, nodding, "yep. My name's Arien. What's yours?"

"Mya", the little pup answered innocently.

I smiled, "that's a pretty name. I like it. The oil will help soften the tar, we'll pull off as much of it as we can over the course of the night and try to wash the rest of it out in the morning. It wasn't hot when you fell in it was it?"

"No", Mya answered, "it was just warm."

"Oh, okay", I replied, "if the oil get's too cold over the night, let me know and I'll toss a hand warmer in there, it'll get hot enough you should be comfortable. Me and two others are gonna be up all night to pull pieces of the tar off you as it softens. When we get the big chunks off, we'll get you out of the sink."

Mya looked like she might cry, "thank you Arien."

I smiled, "no thanks necessary. Just rest for now. I'll be back to check on you in a half hour, I'm sure Nero will keep you company till then."

Mya set her head down on a lump of the tar that she'd been using as a pillow and shifted her gaze back towards Nero. That sparkle returning. I couldn't help but smile as I returned to the living room and sat down next to Eirren, taking my vest off and dropping it in the corner.

"Nice to have that thing off", I sighed in relief, "also Eirren, I think Mya may already be into Nero."

Eirren smiled, "that's the sweetest thing. Is she gonna be okay?"

"She'll be fine", I said, "it'll take her a few months to recover from the ordeal. Apparently her mother got fragged by a grenade and then a big Feral kicked her into the vent where the tar caught her. After that I don't know. Could be they killed her Mom for food, or maybe the grenade was to incapacitate her for slavery, it's anyone's guest honestly."

Eirren looked like she might have an aneurysm, "dammit, why can't people just leave well enough alone?"

"You get desperate to the point where you see robbing others is the only way to get ahead', Zack said, "it's this damn, "I want that and you don't deserve it because you're not me", mentality. I saw it a lot in liberals pre-war."

"It wasn't just liberals either", I said kicking off my boots, "it was nearly everyone. Maybe that's part of the reason why the bombs fell in the first place, to help clean out the morons from the planet. Certainly haven't seen any communists since the bombs fell."

"Cause they all starved to death", Nat grinned. She'd taken off her helmet and gloves and tossed them in the corner as well as having unzipped her jacket a bit. She looked super relaxed and the look in her eyes longed for sleep. She was making the Geiger's go so crazy that I reached over and turned them off.

"You look like you could just pass out from exhaustion at any second sister", Eirren noted.

"If it weren't for my mutation I would", Nat shrugged, "I'd like nothing more than to fall asleep for even just an hour, it would make things so much better."

"Insomnia like nothing ever seen before", I yawned, "just thinking about it makes me tired."

I reached into my vest, broke open some hand warmers and tossed them inside the bedding Eirren had prepared for us. Wouldn't be half as good as an open flame like we'd had the past two nights, but it'd do. Since it was getting colder, I figured letting Mya stay in that sink over night probably wasn't a good idea. I figured that wherever she was, Nero would turn up as well. The two of them couldn't be left alone on the counter over night, that was for sure. To that end, I changed my strategy a little bit.

"Eirren, let me see your mess kit, you can use mine for the foreseeable future."

"Aw man, what are you planning?", she asked reaching into her bag and pulling out the large metal bowl that she used for pretty much everything.

"I can't let Mya soak in that sink over night", I said, "she'll freeze to death, and Nero doesn't strike me as willing to leave her side, so I need to drain the oil back into it's bottle and bring her in here, where we can keep an eye on her. If I cut away the bulk of the giant slab she's stuck in, we can put her in this bowl and let the oil do it's thing. If I can be precise with the shovel, it won't be hard.

"Using a shovel as a scalpel", Nat said, "now I truly have seen it all."

"That shovel is wicked sharp", I told her, "a friend of mine back home could shave with it. And I cut a foot thick tree down with it in like 15 strikes at one point."

"Still though", Nat commented, "not every day you use a shovel like a surgical instrument."

"Can't say I disagree", I said fishing the bottle of pills Khen had given me out of my bag. I got my canteen and walked into the kitchen. Neither Mya or Nero were asleep, though they both looked like they wanted to be. They weren't talking, more just sitting in silence. I suspected Mya was at the point where she was too tired to talk, can't say I blamed her. When she saw me back at the sink, she looked up at me.

"Here's what's gonna happen Mya", I told her setting the medicine and my Canteen on the counter, "I'm not comfortable keeping you in here for the night, so what I'm going to do is drain the oil from the sink, cut as much of the slab of tar off you as I can, and then cover you in the old blanket you were in when I brought you here for the night, at least that way you'll be warm. Every thirty minutes to an hour, we'll put more oil on the tar and pull off what we can. Tomorrow we'll get some hot water made and give you a good bath."

"Thank you Arien", Mya said quietly.

"Don't talk", I said, "just rest. That goes for you too Nero, go get some sleep."

"I'm not leaving her side Dad", Nero protested, "I can't."

"You don't have too", I said, "just don't think you'll be awake all night."

Nero laid his head back down between his paws. I opened the cupboard underneath the sink, loosened the small pipes and used a piece of butcher paper Eirren had on hand to make a funnel into the bottle. With it all set up, Eirren lifted the slab Mya was stuck too out of the sink and pulled the plug. The pipes were clean, so the oil flowed out without problem or gathering a bunch of shit. She set Mya on the counter and then I took my shovel and combat knife to cut the tar, finding when I touched it with the shovel that it was anything but hard. Sticky as shit, but soft enough I was able to release her from the giant slab with just a little bit of Multi-Tool work. I took some of the oil from the bottle and applied it to her still tar covered fur to further soften what was left and then wrapped her in the old blanket.

"Mya, when was the last time you had a drink?", I asked filling Eirren's bowl with water.

"A few days",she said.

"Here", I said setting the bowl in front of her, "drink it slowly or you'll risk throwing up and in your shape you need to not do that. Also, swallow this pill."

I handed it to her.

"What is it?", she asked.

"We have a friend who has a bunch of radiation that lives inside her", Nero said, "the pill makes it so her emission can't hurt us."

"Are you sure?", Mya asked worryingly.

"Positive", Nero said, "Aunt Nat makes the Geiger counter's go insane, but she's been around for almost a week and I don't even feel sick."

"Okay", Mya said unassured, "I'm trusting you."

I gave her the pill and she took it out of my hand, swallowing it with a big gulp of water, after witch she slowly drank the bowl dry. I brought her into where the rest of us were camping and set her down next to Eirren and I. Nero worked himself into the blanket bundle next to her and let her lean against him, both of them falling asleep very quickly.

"You know if they keep this up Eirren, you and I can't adopt her", I noted.

"Why is...oh, right", Eirren smiled, "whose gonna take her then?"

"Nat and I will", Zack suggested.

"Nat who?", Nat asked in reply.

"Well someone's gotta do it", Zack countered.

"No", Nat said sternly, "No I want nothing to do with kids."

"Why not?", Zack asked, "she needs someone to look after her."

"This isn't up for a discussion Zack", Nat barked. There was the pit bull anger. I could hear the growl in her voice, "I'm not doing it, end of discussion."

"She needs a Mom and a Dad Nat", Zack said, "Eirren and Arien can't do it."

"Why the hell not?", Nat asked looking towards us.

"Because she has a thing for Nero and Nero's got something on for her too", I said, "it's kinda hard to miss."

"I'm not raising any damn kids", Nat said, "period."

"Why?", Zack asked, "I don't understand the hostility. She's just a puppy Nat, she needs two parents in her life."

"I don't want another puppy to deal with because I couldn't take care of the ones I gave birth to!", Nat snarled like a Rabid, showing Zack her very long and very sharp teeth, "my pups died in a nuclear blast and I wasn't there to comfort them as Medusa ripped the flesh off their bones! Are you happy now!?"

"You had better put those teeth away", Zack said darkly, flashing his own, "that is a fight you won't win."

I stood up and stepped in between them, my SigSauer in hand, "Cut it out right the fuck now! Both of you! We are all on the same fucking team, you got me!?"

I looked at Zack, who sighed and looked to the ground, "yeah..I got you."

'What about you?", I asked turning to look at Nat, "are we gonna have any more problems?"

Nat sighed, "no."

"Good", I said, "one of you has to take her because Eirren and I can't. Work it out between yourselves."

"I'll take her", Zack said.

"Good", I said looking over to Nero and Mya, both of who seemed to be out of it. Nero had a light snore, and Mya was being completely quiet, I wondered if she was awake and had heard the whole thing and was being rock like to avoid being shot or bitten, "god I hope she didn't hear any of that."

Nat sighed, glancing back out the window, "yeah, me either."

I sat back down next to Eirren and put my pistol away. We sat in awkward silence for the next couple of minutes before she fell asleep. Zack followed her shortly, though I had to fight to stay awake due to my guard shift.

"You know Arien...it's a good thing I can't sleep", Nat said quietly.

"What do you mean?", I yawned.

"Joey and Tia...I can still hear them scream sometimes", Nat said, "Medusa seared their final words into my brain. My puppies were killed in front of me by animals with a weapon I couldn't defend against."

"You blame yourself?", I asked.

"Of course I do", Nat sighed, "there isn't anyone else to blame."

"How about the bastards who set Medusa off?", I asked.

"I should be blaming my asshole landlord", Nat said, "childless, mateless fucker locked himself the the shelter the rest of us paid him to let us build. Every single Animal in that building minus old man Reynolds had a mate and kids either with them or on the way."

"Dickhead", I huffed.

"I fought with Zack over it because I don't want Mya taken from me the way Tia and Joey were. And...then there is Zack too. And to an extent, you, Eirren and Nero."

"Have it for Zack do you?", I asked.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't think he was easy on the eyes", Nat smiled, sighing at the same time, "though after the way my first family was ripped away from me, I'm worried what might happen again. I'm not sure I'm ready to love again."

"I can't say I blame you", I said, "though I will say that I think you should at least give Zack a chance. Eirren gave me one."

Nat chuckled, "yeah, she did. Get some sleep brother. I got the watch covered."

"You sure?", I asked.

"Positive", she said.

I shrugged, certainly wasn't going to fight her on that.