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Not much is known about Demons. They primarily exist in the sun baked hell of the Southern US, though they can emerge anywhere that Reptiles, in particular Southern Dragons, have succumbed to the Rabies Virus. It is not known what makes a Demon so difficult to kill despite scale loss.

Now, I'd been in some pretty bleak situations, before the bombs fell and since then. I'd driven myself to the near brink of insanity several times over the course of my 24 years, and more often than not my concerns had turned out to be for nothing. I'd gotten a bot wiser since I started this trip, and knowing that we were headed into demon country had presented me with two options on how I could deal with things. The first, and most sane by any logical means I supposed, was to turn around and head back to Maine. With the Ford, the travel time home would be reduced to only a few days and we could probably swing it on a single tank of fuel, and maybe without even having to stop. Even the largest Rabid horde could never scrape or claw their way through the Ford's armored exterior and the only real obstacle would be navigating the two Medusa bombs. Option two, the less sane one, was to keep on keeping on, kill whatever tried to get in our way, reach Texas and rebuild. The second option however, would require us to move as one, act as one, kill as one. Coordination, teamwork, the Ford and each other, would be our greatest assets the closer we drew to home. I hadn't inquired about the density of the Demon population further south when I was talking with those kids yesterday, and now I found myself wishing that I had, because I really wasn't sure what I was about get us all into. We could handle a few of them here and there, a loner we could stop in it's tracks, two or three would likely still be manageable, but anything above that and we'd have a serious problem on our hands unless we could find something that we could deploy from a distance to stop them cold. In the back of my head though, I already knew what I was going to do. Somehow I still knew we'd make it back to Texas, even though realistically the odds weren't in my favor.

Despite already having made up my mind, it seemed like tonight would be one of those nights, where I couldn't get to sleep no matter what I did. I rose up in my bed at right around 1 in the morning, wasn't sure what had stirred me. I listened, to the house and the world around me to try and see if I could hear something. Of course, there was only the creaking of old wood, Nero's snoring and the sounds of the wind blowing sand around outside. The temperature was still right around 70, still comfortable even though I was half naked. I looked at my watch, five past two AM. Sunrise was six, those three hours before dawn started in one. I didn't see myself getting back to sleep, not easily at least, so I figured I'd fight the fatigue with the one thing I knew better than any. I sighed again, quietly pushed aside the covers and slipped out of bed without waking Eirren. I glided across the carpeted floor to the entrance of the garage and quietly slipped inside. The Ford stood as a towering, pitch black mass in the abyss of the old garage. Moonlight was poking in through cracks in the wall and, out here where there wasn't any real insulation on the walls, I could hear the howling wind and scraping sand, incessantly attacking the thin, fried walls of the house, but still unable to enter. I pulled open the rear door of the Ford and dug my ruck out from inside. I kept a bunch of gun parts that I'd acquired over the years, both pre and post war, together in a bag inside of a metal tin. Since finding the Binary trigger a few months ago, I'd been using it along with a BSA Red Dot and an older model EoTech magnifier. When the trigger broke, I had just thrown the mill-spec back in and put a short dot I'd recovered some months prior onto it for the time being, but now that I had time, it was time to restore my firearm to it's natural state. The Upper receiver came off, the trigger pins followed and the mil-spec came out. Trigger first, I set the lower half of the Geissele into it, hammered out the slave pin and put the function pin back in. I re-installed the hammer and re united the receivers. The Short Dot came off, and the Trijicon went back on. The old Acog was worn down to bare metal from the years I'd braved the wastelands of Maine with it, but it had served me well and was still going strong despite a lack of paint. Having my rifle put back together, it bestowed a certain feeling to me that I hadn't felt in a long while. I'd become a rather proficient gun fighter since the nukes fell, mainly because I had to, and having my firearm back to it's full potential as I'd learned with it was already one strike against the wasteland. Though I guessed only time would tell how many strikes it had against me. With my rifle reassembled. I dug further into my pack. In the depths of my gear, rested another old friend, my Remington 700. The stock and barrel I'd been carrying on the outside of my back, wrapped in a tan cloth, while the action and scope had been riding in my claymore pouch. I gathered up the components and began to reassemble my forgotten bolt action, and in the middle of it all, I heard the garage door open. I turned to see Eirren standing in the door way, dressed in a comforter,

"Arien, it's like two in the morning, why are you out here?", she asked standing in the door way.

"I could ask you the same thing", I said stopping my work to stare at her.

"I'm awake because I got cold, which led me to realize you weren't in bed, with me, like you should be", she said, "you should know me well enough by now to know I catch a chill stupidly easy. And you still haven't answered my question."

I sighed, setting my gear aside, "too much on my brain I guess."

"Like what?", she asked.

"Oh, I've been thinkin' a lot about what that kid told me yesterday. About how we're headed into Demon country. I didn't think to ask how often he saw the damn things, and now I'm beating myself up for thinking about it just now as we get ready to head deeper in. Can't help but think about our odds against multiple Demons. We had a hell of a time dealing with three, anything above that is asking for problems if their Southerns, but imagine if a Northern Demon decides to run us down."

"You think even a Northern Demon could catch the Ford at full tilt?", Eirren asked.

I shrugged, "I can't say one way or the other. You saw how fast the Southern Demons are, and I'm sure you've seen what Rabies did to all the Feral and Southern Mammals, Birds and Fish."

"Still", Eirren said, "Casey, one of Hunter's Merc friends was a Northern and he ripped his thigh bone literally in half and sheered joints in his ankles when he hit 110 at track. I doubt even the strongest demon with the Rabies virus dripping from his mouth in foaming saliva could catch the Ford once those turbos come on."

"My concern still stands love", I said finishing assembling my R-700.

"Where'd you pick that up at?", Eirren asked.

"It's been with me the whole time, dissembled in my pack", I told her, "kept the stock and barrel on the outside, action and scope in the bag, I figure I'll be needing it in the coming weeks."

Eirren paused for a moment, "hey, didn't Shannon say she was from Oklahoma?"

"I think so, once or twice."

"Why not just ask her about all of these crazy rumors?", Eirren asked, "I mean if she's been camping out so far South these past few years she's bound to know just what kind of shit is going on down there."

"I will in the morning", I yawned, "assuming I can remember."

"Come back to bed, it's too early for this", Eirren said.

"I'd rather stay awake if it's all the same", I told her, "I just need some time to gather myself and figure out how to approach this."

"Yeah? Well those three hours before dawn start in two, and you had better believe I will be asleep for both of them. I can't do that if I'm freezing my tail off. Come back to bed and do your thinking there love, please."

I sighed, "you aren't gonna stop unless I do, are you?"

"Nope", she said without missing a beat.

"Should have figured as much", I said shaking my head. I packed up my things, closed up the Ford and then snuck back inside with Eirren. I crawled into bed next to her and she curled up against me.

"How can you sleep all bunched up?", I asked.

"Only when I'm cold", She said snuggling up next to me, "normally I just sprawl out everywhere."

I snickered, "yeah, I know. Never thought I'd say this, but I'd give anything to wake up tomorrow and have all of this just be a bad dream."

"I'd agree", Eirren said rolling over to face me, "but then I wouldn't have you."

I smiled, "good point."

Those two hours went by way to damn fast for my tastes. At 4 AM we were getting dressed in the lightest equipment we had on us and packing away the winter stuff in the Ford while Nat began to brew a pot of some strong smelling coffee. I'd never really cared for coffee all that much, but I'd always fucking hated waking up early with a passion that burned as bright as a million red giants. Pre war I'd gotten up early because of my job, post war it was because if you weren't awake at the ass crack of dawn you were likely to be eaten by something or someone that was.

"This is gonna get fucking old real quickly", Zack yawned as the threw his ruck into the back of the Ford and put his AK in his seat.

"Rotate seats", I said, "it'll keep you from going insane."

"Nat is that coffee ready?", he asked stretching.

"Don't rush me", she yawned, her voice came out in a thick Scottish accent, thicker than what she normally had, "this is the first full night's sleep I've had in two years, okay, I need my caffeine before Imma be doin' anything."

"Should have asked Morgan how bad my Insomnia was while we were trekking across Canada", Benjamin stated, "I didn't sleep literally a second for like six months, and when I finally felt safe enough to rest, I was out for almost 50 hours straight. Morgan said later she had to keep the others from wakin' me up."

"How much of that was Corium and how much of it was Paranoia?", I asked.

"Paranoia all of it", Benjamin laughed, "It was like a drug with a high you never come off of. There was an old Star Wars meme that went around a couple of years ago about Palpatine talking about the story of a Sith lord who was so high on weed that the only thing he became concerned with was losing that high, which, eventually of course he did."

"I remember that, the guys apprentice smoked his whole stash and then stole his sham-wow", I laughed, "Weed memes were the freshest memes."

"My brother was a weed meme", Eirren giggled, "can't count the number of times his super joints got me in trouble. I almost spent the night in jail once because he and his lover were hittin' a bong all night one night and I couldn't get the smell out of my jacket in time for school. So I put a second shirt on and dealt with it. You ever smoked weed Zack?"

"No, but some crazy South Americans were hittin' a hell of a bong during a cease fire while I was in the military. Just the smoke got me so fucked up I couldn't stand."

"I think I'd probably start smoking if I was on the French front too", I shrugged.

"Arctic was worse", Shannon said, "a buddy of mine that got drafted into Delta Force said a bunch of animals on that mission ended up doing hardcore drugs afterwords."

"I remember hearing about that", I said sitting next to the fire Nat was cooking over, "they were puttin' animals in weird places from drafts because just about every program and project the military had needed bodies to occupy triggers. What about you Ben? You got any drug related memories of pre war while we're on the subject?"

Nat handed me a cup of coffee. I didn't normally drink coffee, couldn't stand the bitter taste, or the smell really for that matter, but she'd added powdered milk, creamer and some chocolate flavor, creating this flavor that was like half way between coffee and hot coco that was made with milk instead of water, smelled pretty good, tasted even better.

"Well, two actually, that kinda merge into one. When I took that 8mm round to the face it blew off half my skull. I just remember flying off the tank, not feeling a lot of anything and then getting into a savage fight with some Chinese soldiers that were hiding in the sand. Once the AO was clear, Staff Sargent Trevor turns at me and goes, "umm..private, are you aware that half of your skull is missing?" My response was basically to pause for a moment and ask him to repeat himself, he did, so I being an idiot touched the side of my head and learned that day that my brain felt oddly like clay."

"Holy fuck", Eirren whistled.

"Next thing I knew I was in a hospital bed, numb everywhere. Turned out they'd stuck my head back together with one of those 3d Printers and put me on something called T-5. The hardest of hardcore painkillers on the planet. Non addictive, but man did this shit just shut your ass down. While I was on it, I was immobile. Couldn't blink, couldn't move my mouth, legs, tail, arms, fucking nothing worked. I found out later that it's a synthesized paralytic agent designed to render the patient completely numb."

"Yeah. I'm familiar with it. Pre war, a buddy of mine was on the receiving end on some stupidly horrific burns. Something like 4ththrough 6th degree burns on 100% of his body. He was on a constant drip of the stuff for the near three and a half years it took him to recover."

"Brutal", Shannon sighed, "reminds me of the day the bombs first fell actually. I was working as an ER nurse in Oklahoma City at the time, and to this day I still don't know what the hell kind of bombs they were dropping, but we had a Southern dragon couple come into the ER..."

She paused for a moment, then continued.

"I'll never forget that night. I would rather see a hundred mushroom clouds than harken back to that night again."

"What happened?", Nero asked after a prolonged silence.

Shannon looked to me, "you want me to tell this story around them?"

I looked towards Nero for a moment, there was something in the way the moonlight filtering in through the window caught his silvery eyes that drew my response, "Nero's been through just as much as the rest of us, so has Mya. I don't think it'll bother them."

Shannon sat up straight as she could, exhaled and then slumped back down, beginning with her story, "The bombs the SAF used on the South weren't nuclear, I'm not sure exactly what they were. They didn't kill by explosive force, radiation, fire, or any typical lethal agent. They killed by something else entirely, attacking any living cell directly with some kind of specialized particle. You could drop this bomb down someone's chimney and kill everyone inside the house with the only damage to the building coming from the bomb itself busting out the fireplace glass. These...I don't even want to call them weapons, I want to call them something I don't really have a good name for. The...injuries I saw on animals affected by these bombs were downright satanic at the best."

"Satanic huh?", Ben asked, "were they really that bad?"

"Ben", Shannon addressed, about to hand down righteous judgment form which there was no escape, "A Southern Dragon wandered into the ER, literally missing 60% of the flesh from his body, damn near down to bare bones in some places. He was in such shock that his brain didn't realize he was dead, this was one of the less extreme cases I saw that night."

"Holy shit", Ben responded.

"Yeah. One guy came in with a bunch of burned and mangled masses on his body that later turned out to be melted scales. I don't think I can actually really convey the horrors from that night."

"Damn", I sighed, "by the way, I've been meaning to ask you. How bad is it, really, further South? What are we getting into?"

"Well", Shannon set down her coffee, "the story that Eirren told about the ex marine that visited her pretty accurately described the state of Oklahoma right now. You guys were the first sane animals I'd seen since packing up after John died."

"Exactly what I was hoping you wouldn't say", I sighed, "you ever run into a demon? Kid I talked to yesterday said down south was their turf."

"It is", she confirmed, "though you don't really see too many of them, you just have to be ready for a fight to the death when you do. Demons tend to be smarter than the average Rabid as well as slightly more sane. They retain enough of their brain function to use and care for weapons, firearms included, or at least picking them up and understanding their purpose. I did meet one that was still sane enough to hold rational conversation, but only once. Chatted him up for a good hour before he had to get on down the road."

"Where was he headed?", I asked.

"An old fishing town in Alaska, then to Russia", Shannon said, "he had family over there."

"Hope he got there in one piece", I said, "Russia's a hell of a long walk."

"Yeah, no shit", she agreed. She zoned out for a moment, rubbing the palm of her paw with her thumb, "Arien...who do you suppose, once the last bomber had landed, actually won the war?"

For the past several years, my go to answer for that had always been no one, but Zack beat me to it this time, and with a much more fitting answer, I would say.

"Everyone that was swept off their feet and carried home on a wave of Nuclear Fire", he sighed.

With those morbid words, we climbed abroad our Excursion. Benjamin drew open the garage door and joined us back in the cabin. With everyone locked and loaded, I shifted into first gear and started out onto the road with a creak from the suspension. Nero and Mya had already fallen back to sleep, as well as Shannon, and Zack, though Nat, Ben, Eirren and myself were now wide awake. The Ford left a thick dust cloud in it's wake and, with the clarity of the sky and bright blue glow of the moon, we had a view of the wasteland for miles around. It wasn't like the dead woods and decrepit cities of Rabid Country. Here, it was high desert. Just a rolling plain of endless sand and burned houses, but it wasn't like it was in Canada, where the highways were littered with rusted cars, bleached bones and evidence of other animals scurrying about in the early hours looking for whatever they'd need to survive the heat of the day. Here, the desert was empty, devoid of any evidence that life had ever existed except for old houses that were on the verge of falling over. Even the asphalt, lit by the Ford's headlights, was washed almost white and in some places it was difficult to even see the road on account of all of the sand that had been flung over it by the wind. I relied heavily on Eirren calling out directions and telling me exactly where to go, and at times our pace was slowed to a crawl because I couldn't see the road. Right around 7 in the morning was when the sun began to rise, and with it the temperature. I saw a spike of about 5 degrees once the sun had halfway come over the horizon and then it slowly rose another 8 while it cleared it. The temperature was now sitting at right around 82 degrees, not bad at all, and I supposed only time would tell just how hot it could get. One thing that wasn't lost on me though was, no matter how hot it get, our number one enemy out here would simply be visibility. The near bone white sand combined with the acidicly bright sun left us in white out conditions almost. Even with military grade polarized sunglasses, the brightness of the outside world filtering through the Ford's tinted windshield made me feel like by the end of the day I'd be just as blind as Nero.

"The sun's out today mother fuckers", Eirren said glancing at the practical salt flat out her window.

"Wonder if something like this in Canada is what made Nero blind?", I asked.

"Probably", Eirren said, "so here's a question, what the fuck are we gonna do if the truck overheats out here? Even with tinted window's and sunglasses it's bright as a motherfucker. If we have to get out of this truck who knows how bad it could get."

"I know", I said, "we'll be blind as Nero come nightfall, fucking sun."

"Could we maybe cover the window's with burlap or something?", Eirren asked, "our eyes would thank us."

"Yeah, I suppose. Think of all the visibility we'd lose though, 'specially out here with how barren everything is?", I pondered, "a hungry demon see's our blacked out Excursion in the sea of white, licks his lips and races towards us and we don't see it till he body slams us off the road."

"Well I suppose it's that or we all end up blind as Nero", Eirren said, "pick the poison I guess."

"She does have a point", Shannon remarked, now haven woken up. Nero was sitting in her lap, looking out over the barren landscape, the light even seeming to bother him, "our eyes adjusting to this kind of like will leave us utterly helpless come sundown."

"Well, you're the vet", I said, "how do we combat it?"

"Well...", Shannon said, "first of all, I know that the newer model of Excursion had some kind of sunshades offered as an option that suction cupped onto the glass. Not solid for the front windows and windshield like the rear windows, but I know they got 'em because my older brother had an Excursion he built into an off roader and never shut up about how well they worked. If we run across a Ford dealership, they're bound to have an Excursion with them equipped. Even if they aren't that great against what we're dealing with, we can use a can of spray glue and attach burlap or something to the backs of them to help filter out more light. The less that can make it into the cabin without compromising your ability to see, the better."

"The lights one thing", Eirren said, "but what the hell do we do if we get caught out in this heat? It's 110 outside right now and climbing pretty steadily."

"Being dragons, you and Arien shouldn't have much trouble with the heat and since Nat's got boiling radiation for blood, she shouldn't either. I don't know about the rest of us though."

"We'll be fine long as we can keep the Ford running", I said, "And if worse comes to worse, we can always track down one of those small box trailers, stick a portable AC inside of it and use a portable diesel generator to power it all."

"Are portable Diesel generators even a thing?", Shannon asked.

"They exist", Zack said, "you can pick 'em up at just about any hardware store. Mounting one to a box trailer wouldn't require much work on our part."

"What about noise levels though?", Eirren asked, "seems like if we needed to cut holes in a box trailer for an AC we'd need power tools."

"Why not just find an Airstream?", Shannon suggested, "couldn't we retrofit it to use diesel fuel? Surely the Ford could handle towing an Airstream...right?"

"Well", Zack began, "it would certainly sap fuel efficiency, though given we've got a diesel so it shouldn't affect us too bad. I would still suggest we rig up a generator so we don't sap the Excursion's battery too much. Being as reflective as it is too, it'd stand out quite a bit, though a few cans of spray paint could help with that."

"A few cans?", I asked, "where would we find that much paint?"

Zack shrugged, "fuck if I know, long as we have tan green and black with the texture in it, we'll be good."

"It's gonna be an interesting trip I think", I said to myself.

Some hours passed after that conversation. Right around one in the afternoon, I saw a small whisp of steam rising from the hood, that was when I noticed for the first time the temperature gauge in the cluster was holding steady right over a blood red H. I slowed the Ford to a stop and put it in park, letting it settle into it's 450 RPM idle.

"Why we stopping?", Zack asked.

"We overheated, I saw a wisp of steam rising from underneath the hood", I answered, "gonna let the engine idle a bit and cool off."

"Good call", Zack said, "shutting off an engine that's overheating is one of the worst things you can do."

We sat on the side of the road smoking for about fifteen minutes. The steam had faded long before then, but the engines temperature was still well over acceptable range. When it finally cooled off, I shut it off.

"Use those battery operated fans we got from the Walmart to keep the air flowing. We'll use that along with brief periods of running the engine to avoid dying of heat exhaustion. I'm gonna watch Zack's back while he takes a look for any potential damage."

"Rodger", Eirren said.

I grabbed my W1200 and stepped out of the Ford with Zack, finding that even though it was about 150 degrees outside, I was quite comfortable.

"Not that bad", I said closing the door behind me.

"Oh says the Desert Dragon to the Shark!", Zack complained as he threw off his vest and left it in the Ford. His torso was a mess of radiation scars, cuts and scrapes. He was well built for sure, and I figured Shannon was probably already lusting after him, "it's gotta be 200 degrees out here."

"150", I said, "count your blessing's, at least it's a dry heat and not 97% humid, we'd be in for a fucking shit time if it was."

"We're in for a shit time already if this truck's damaged in any way", Zack said popping the hood and beginning to go through the components one at a time. I stood guard with the 1200 over my shoulder, but at the ready, scanning the barren landscape for any signs of trouble. The only sounds I could hear were the wind and the distant chatter of someone's LMG. Didn't know whose.

"Sounds like an M249", I mentioned, "hear it?"

"I hear it. Ain't no M249", Zack said, "sounds more like a Lewis Gun."

"A Lewis Gun?", I asked, "you think?"

"Yeah. In the distance .30-06 sounds a lot like 5.56 from a much closer range", Zack said, "shooter's probably seven or eight miles out in reality. Dealing with Demons I'd say."

"I don't care what he's dealing with long as it's far away from us", I shrugged.

The sounds of the LMG's chatter went on for a good 20 minutes, with the only breaks in the sustained automatic fire being the pauses to reload. I figured our shooter must be in a heavily fortified position to have that level of access to ammunition, given the Lewis was fed by a 47 round pan or a 94 round drum, if it was a Lewis at all."

"That's a lot of .30-06 to go through", I sighed to myself as Zack closed the hood, "damage?"

"Nothing that's going to matter in the long run", Zack said, "only damage I could find the fact that one of the hose clamps loosened from the heat. We're good to go, but we shouldn't move till night fall, overheating is easier the second time around."

Going back around to the Ford, I found Benjamin standing guard. He had his M16 behind his shoulders and was gazing off into the distance with a pair of binoculars.

"Guys hear all that LMG fire out in the distance?", he asked, "someone's shooting a Lewis Gun."

"So it is a Lewis?", I asked, "sounded like a SAW."

"Yeah. At long ranges the Lewis chatters like the SAW does up close", Ben noted, "our shooter's probably six or seven miles away. Sounds like he must be firing from a pretty heavily entrenched position to have access to that level of .30-06. Wonder what the hell was eating all those rounds?"

"Don't know, don't care to find out", I said opening the door to the truck, "lemme know if you get too hot and I'll pull guard shift. We'll be here till at least sundown."

"Aye, aye capin', Ben said throwing me a salute.

I climbed back into the Ford with Zack, where I found the girls engaging in idle conversation.

"Prognosis?", Shannon asked.

"We're fine", Zack said, "one of the hose clamps got hot and came lose. Long as Arien keeps his eyes on the temperature gauge we should be fine from here on out, though I don't think it's wise to move before nightfall."

"No shit, you guys hear all of that LMG chatter up the road?", Eirren asked.

"Yeah", I said, "someone shooting a Lewis from an entrenched position we think. Ben and Zack both think he's about eight miles West."

"Long as whatever he's trying to kill stays far away from us", Nero said.

"Well, ain't nothing to do now but wait for the temperature to drop below 105", I said staring out over the desert. The horizon was distorted by heat mirage, appearing as if I was looking into a glass bowl filled with moving water. I'd seen it a lot since the bombs fell, but nothing quite this bad. It was surreal to look at, quite unnerving. In the four hours it took for the sun to fall, and the heat with it, the Ford became a near oven. It's black paint and windows trapping all of the heat that came into it and resulting in my having to run the engine at least twice an hour often for 15 minutes or more. We didn't use much gas, but a few times the water temp gauge went a little higher than I would have liked, despite just idling. Shannon, Zack were more affected by the heat than the rest of us while Nero and Mya damn near passed out from it. It was clear to me that sitting on the side of the road alternating between over heating the engine and overheating ourselves was a piss poor way to deal with the heat. By four thirty, the temperature had fallen below 105, and I started the Ford yet again, turning the AC on as high as it would go. We'd gone through a good chunk of our water supplies as well, prompting concern of what we would do to acquire more.

"We all agree to travel at night from now on right?", Shannon asked. Over the course of the day she'd ended up in nothing but her underwear, Zack had a similar problem and Eirren was down to a tank top. Nero and Mya's fur was all matted from sweat and they were both red in their faces.

A round of nods, "yeah, but what the hell are we gonna do about that mother fucking heat during the day?", Shannon asked, "I mean, who even knows if we'll have real shelter available to us, and camping out in the Ford isn't an option anymore given how badly that just went over."

"Getting some kind of camping trailer we can tow behind us has to be our top priority right now", I said, "as well as some way of hauling around mass quantities of water that we can purify as we need."

"We could just mount some barrels onto whatever it is we find", Eirren said, "and use whatever kind of water pump is laying around to help fill it faster."

"Agreed", I said, "but to do this without wasting gas requires two things, one to have a base we can rig against the heat, and two, making sure that same base has a place that we can use to keep the Ford out of sight while Ben and myself search for what we'll need."

"With all that said, what's the plan if we're split up, and Demons come knocking?", Eirren asked.

There was a slight pause.

"What is the plan?", Nat asked.

"I don't know yet", I sighed, "truth be told, I'm not sure what we can do, other than stay completely silent."

"If we're gonna be cutting holes for AC units in trailers and running generators", Zack said, "staying quiet is out of the question, we're gonna be seeing some Demons one way or the other before this is over."

"I know", I sighed.

"So again, what do we do if Demons come knocking and you boys are all out on mission."

"Our first plan of action needs to be to find a suitable base camp that we can brace against the heat", I said, "we could run a generator in a garage and vent the exhaust outside from the dryer vent since it's already heat proofed. As long as we have a place to lay low during the day, we can haul ass and get shit done during the night. As far as going on mission is concerned, "one of us will stay behind at all times in case something comes up."

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

"I'm on board", Eirren agreed.

"Same here", Zack said.

"Better than nothing", Ben shrugged.

I nodded and leaned back in my seat, "next house we find with a garage, we'll stop."