Doomsday By Design -- [STORY THREAD]

Alan was silent for a while.

"The first friend you made here..." He uttered. "I know how you feel."

A few minutes of quietness lingered in the air.

"I'm going inside to get ready." He said after a while. "I'll leave you alone to gather your thoughts. Just... just try to get ready soon, please. We have to leave."

Alan went back into the bunker, leaving Marcus standing by his lonesome.

After a very long cuddle, Sue-Lin and her Dad returned to their home bringing their gear and the APC with them. Their home was as they had left it. Working quietly and with no discussion being necessary, they stripped the small house of anything useful and moved into their 'bunker'.

Their bunker was courtesy of Uncle Sam. At some stage, this small underground facility had housed communication equipment linking first strike ICBM silos. In time, new technology had made this post redundant and the Government had decommissioned the site and sold it.

Mum had bought it at Dad's request. The funds had come from their winnings. Just before they left Australia, they had 'won' the lottery. They hadn't won anything, that whole particular lottery was a fraud or at least the 'draw the winner' bit had been fraudulent. But then, Governments could do that and in this case gave a spy a great deal of traceable money with no one wondering where it came from.

A lot of work, most of it done after Mum's death, had bought the bunker up to scratch. Some of it was not at all hard. As an example, the Military's idea of decommissioning the high voltage defenses had been simply to remove the high voltage generator. They left everything else in place. Dad simply purchased a new generator and installed it right where the original had sat.

So it was with most of the defense systems and Dad had installed others. They had a four layered defense system, all computer controlled and after that, they would have to get off their butts and defend themselves.

They shared a meal sitting very close together and then spent a long time in each others arms talking about how things had turned out and how Sue-Lin felt on the inside, deep in her core being. After she had done so, her Father did the same. As was usual, they felt much the same about the situation.

With a good days work behind them they went to sleep leaving the computer and huge amounts of concrete and steel to guard then through the hours of darkness.

Beep beep beep beep.

The sound echoed throughout the place, but it seemed as though no one had heard it at first..

Beep beep beep beep.

Inside of Ryujin's technologically advanced house, a strange, rhythmic beeping rang throughout the home, seeming to come from his concealable television.


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Sue-Lin and her father didn't seem to hear the beeping at first.

Beep beep beep beep.

It continued to echo throughout their home...

Beep beep beep beep.


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"Look, its getting dark already!" Alan exclaimed to Carol. "Hurry up!"

"I just wanted to make sure we have everything we need, sweetheart." Carol replied timidly. "We'll leave just as soon as--"

Beep beep beep beep.

"The hell is--?"

Beep beep beep beep.

Alan glanced around the bunker, locating the HAM radio.

Beep beep beep beep.

Cautiously, he approached it, looking awestricken. He set down his half-packed backpack, staring at the radio as it continued to emit its beeping noises.

Then, the message began to play... it echoed throughout the bunker, and miles away, it played through Ryujin's and Sue-Lin's homes, loudly enough for all of them to hear.

The message was shrouded in static, but it was just clear enough to make out properly.

"If anyone's out there... south... south of us... listen, get out right now. There's a huge raider tribe heading your way... from the east... and they won't show you any mercy... no one is safe... If you're getting this message, leave your homes as soon as possible. No one is going to survive, they... those people are ruthless... listen, head northwest... to a little town called Los Oculto... we are the NAR, and we're the last bit of society left... we're a... a sort of network, if you will... just come here, and I promise, you will be safe. Its vital that everyone who's survived this catastrophe pull together so we might build society up again... instead of becoming savage rioters... come... we're waiting."

The static died instantly.

"The NAR..." Angus mumbled. "Well... we know where Dorian went, then."

"What're you babbling about now?" Alan said, losing his patience.

"The New American Republic." Angus started. "Its an underground network of preppers from all over the country. If anything ever happened, everyone in the NAR had plans they'd act on depending on what kind of disaster they'd face. Dorian and I were both part of the NAR. If he's alive, he's in Los Oculto. No question."

Alan, Carol, and Angus all met eyes with one another.

"Well then." Alan said. "I guess this would be a good time to stop sitting around with our thumbs up our asses, huh? Get ready. We're leaving. Now."

When Alan stormed into the armory, Angus glanced at Carol, smirking.

"Ain't that cute." He said to her. "He's starting to sound like Sandra."

The next morning Sue-Lin went through the communication logs and found a powerful message sent on HAM radio frequencies. She replayed the message from their system's recording logs and then played it again with her Father listening. It said,

If anyone's out there... south... south of us... listen, get out right now. There's a huge raider tribe heading your way... from the east... and they won't show you any mercy... no one is safe... If you're getting this message, leave your homes as soon as possible. No one is going to survive, they... those people are ruthless... listen, head northwest... to a little town called Los Oculto... we are the NAR, and we're the last bit of society left... we're a... a sort of network, if you will... just come here, and I promise, you will be safe. Its vital that everyone who's survived this catastrophe pull together so we might build society up again... instead of becoming savage rioters... come... we're waiting.

Her Father asked "Well, what do we do."

Sue-Lin thought for a few minutes before answering.

"The message has all the hallmarks of the former US Government. It induces a fear response, it asks, 'come here' and then it says, 'we, someone, will protect you.' The most likely scenario is that it is a trap, a trap to bring all the survivors together to be collected as slaves to serve those few who survived the master plan."

Sue-Lin paused before continuing. "We are utterly safe from a roving band no matter how large. They would have to dig down 124 feet just to get to the first layer of reinforced concrete. I would sit tight for now and see if this roving band materializes. We should though investigate this town of Los Oculto if we have the assets to do so. Your bosses would be very interested in whatever we find.

Of course, that town has just told everyone that they exist and by extension, that they have food in great quantity. They are now a target. That roving band, should it exist, will now head straight for them. Either way, we are best served to stay right where we are."

Her Father nodded once, extremely proud of his daughter and proud in himself for bringing her this far. He had used only two things to teach her the new life he had offered her all those years ago. He had used love and cuddles as his first priority.

He opened a computer file for his Daughter to read saying, "Los Oculto is the center of a group of survivalists called the New American Republic or the NAR. They are real enough, but we do not know who is behind the organization. Out of necessity they have been secretive, staying off official radars but I do not know who is running the show. This file has all of the information I was able to collect. It does not change the great decision you just made."

Sue-Lin nodded and smiled as she started going through the file.

Alan left him standing outside and Marcus was grateful for the time to compose himself. As he stood looking at the outdoors for the first time in over a week, he came to a conclusion.

"Jackson would want me to go on, take care of his mom and even forgive Church." He said to himself as he looked around. "If Jackson could forgive him maybe I can too." So Marcus turned around and went back into the bunker.

Inside everyone was packing for their expedition to find Sandra. The mysterious door had been opened and it seemed Sandra's Uncle had been quite prepared.

"Wow, my dad would be impressed." He said with a grin. He wondered if his folks were still alive then. He had not really thought of them over the past week. Tried not too actually, after finding the massacre at the diner. Rummaging through the ammo he found some more 9mm for the pistol he had taken from the dying deputy.

Maybe I'll try one of those rifles Sue-Lin brought in. He thought walking back into the main chamber. His dad had taken him hunting a number of times and he fancied himself a fairly good shot with a rifle. Even taken a a few deer on his own.

Marcus was in the doorway when the HAM radio started to broadcast the warning. The others were discussing the meaning of the message and decided that was where Sandra had went to. Marcus walked over to one of the cases that Sue-Lin had brought back and opened it.

"Sweet rifle!" He exclaimed as Alan may his way into the armory.

After picking their favorite firearms from Dorian's armory, and stuffing as much ammunition, food, and water as possible into their bags, Alan lead everyone out of the bunker for, possibly, the last time.

Then, the group marched up the dirt hill, down the driveway, and onto the street leading out of Las Nueva Era for good. Alan stared into his wrist watch intently, seeming to be in thought.

It appeared that Alan's wrist watch was also a compass, and he was using it to determine which direction was northwest.

"That's handy." Carol said, noticing the watch. "Where'd you get a thing like that?"

Alan stared emotionlessly into it for another moment.

"It was a gift from my mother." He answered. "A long time ago."

As the autumn leaves floated by their ankles, Alan lead his comrades out of their home town, and hopefully, towards the only sanctuary left in the new world.

The sun had vanished when Sandra finally stirred herself awake.

Lying underneath a gigantic weeping willow, Sandra sat upright, feeling more well rested than ever. She couldn't remember exactly when she'd fallen asleep under that tree... after hours of travel under the scorching sun, she recalled seeking sanctuary under the shade of the weeping willow... and even though it was the middle of the day, she somehow managed to drift into a deep sleep...

Now, here she was, sitting upright in the dead of night, completely alone. There was no telling how far the town northwest must have been, but Sandra was damn determined to reach it sooner or later. It was the only lead she had.

Alan and the others appeared in her mind. They had food, water, ammunition, and shelter at their disposal... they would be perfectly fine...

Dorian, however, was a complete ghost now. Even if he had managed to reach Los Oculto, why would he have gone there alone? Why not take Sandra with him?

A dark, sinking thought occurred to her.

Perhaps... just perhaps... Dorian absconded simply because he figured Sandra would refuse to listen to him, his doomsday predictions, or his instructions. Maybe, after all the wasted hours of doomsday preparation, during which Sandra made it very clear that she wanted nothing to do with it, it finally sunk in... he finally realized that Sandra would never come around... maybe he was better off without her... maybe that's why she found that goodbye message on that cassette tape... he knew he'd have to abandon her one day...

Sandra shook the thought away.

It seemed like an eternity as she sat there, staring into the starry night...

Jason, John, and all the other team leaders were more or less settled into their new home. They had lost 18 more team members who had requested a leave of absence to attend to family matters.

On this day the remaining team leaders with their teams has been ushered into room 131B to get their first mission briefing.

Ray Hendrix had been a class act and everyone seemed to think highly of him as Jason had known they would.

Ray introduced Wrabbit who would be their mission annalist and briefer today.

Spooks were worse than any military organization with using nick names. The back ground according to Ray on Mr. Wrabbit was he was an X-NSA highly placed spook who could not see working for an organization that continued to break the laws of the land with no oversight or caring for those they hurt. There goal was to protect the power structure, nothing less would do. It was the old "ends justify the means" kind of thinking that had destroyed the protections written in the Constitution for the people of the United States and brought the country and the world to it's present sorry state of affairs.. Absolute power corrupts absolutely had once again been proved beyond anyone's doubt..

Wrabbit entered the room and took the podium.

He did not do a 'feel good' preamble but went right for the jugular.

"When chasing rats, never leave holes open for them to duck into; close all escape routes and destroy all the home lairs of the vermin right off..... that will be our first move.

Where is the biggest vermin hole in CONUS"? A new slide picture was shown to Wrabbit's left.

Denver emergency operations center came up in all it's glory.

"We can not just fly into Denver International Airport (D.I.A.) and find an go to a door marked "Secret Base This Way".....However even though well hidden and very secure there are 8 access points located here x 8 as a slide for each access point was shown and then an overview map of the locations was brought up as a reference.

..Without knowing exactly where and having the proper security I.D. pass card, not to mention all the security camera stationed in every nook and cranny it would be very difficult if not impossible to FIND a way from topside to what's worth seeing, below .. So.. Let us think creatively shall we"?

Below Denver Airport is a C&C center. It's would not be a very good C&C if it was isolated now would it?..

Gentlemen Colorado wasn't picked by accident. Denver airport is not some random choice out in the boonies...

So ask yourself, where would they have wanted to have access both for going and coming when they first drafted the plans for D.I.A ?

“Hummm lets see... Cheyenne Mountain....... New slide....but Cheyenne is now mothballed.. since the high tech stuff isn't there now, where did it go”?

New slide....

Gentlemen It's been moved to Peterson A.F.B. about 12 miles from where the remaining Rats feel their hide out cannot be broken into without a lot of warning.... there are 2 tunnels they use for egress and exit....

New slide showing the tunnels..

" So.. Here is what I have planned for you guys to have a bit of fun with".

From our present position here in Pueblo we will transport to Colorado Springs 'The Springs' as it's called locally.

From there with fake credentials and Airforce and Marine uniforms.... you will infiltrate Peterson AFB and find the access for tunnels to Cheyenne mountain..... which are located here and here.. That will give you access to the transit point into D.I.A.. We already have the orders and security clearance badges for all participants for this little adventure.

Captain Striker and his team will be issued Marine security uniforms and Captain Stark and his team will be issued Air Force M.P uniforms. Both team leaders will be wearing the rank of full Bird Colonel.

Peterson AFB is our back door... Most defenses are at DIA so instead of wasting time with banging away on the front door at the airport we use a rat trick of our own and scurry up their exposed pants leg and bite them hard on the flanks..

The added bonus is that with Cheyenne being thought impenetrable and Peterson not being widely known as it's replacement.....you can get in where they are weak, call it a side door into where they feel they are strongest,...and hurt them where it matters most.

Another benefit is purely psychological. By taking out 'that which doesn't exist'... and by breaking into and through..... that which can not be broken into.... we add a mystique of power. The Rats will not know who pulled this off and will be looking over their shoulders every waking moment wondering if another ax will fall on their exposed necks.

There are first and second tier rats along with there families living under DIA. These are the planners of the Red Flu and the ones who called in the Nukes for Washington D.C and the Pentagon.. Interesting that the nukes came from one of OUR off-shore Navy Boomers.

When your teams take out this nest of rats our next mission will be to go for the truly, (in their minds), elite. These super Rat financiers and surviving Rat politicians will be thrown hard and shaken form their over confidence all the way to the core of their black hearts.... They will start to scatter for in their minds no one place will be safe... Once they are mobile and skittish with a little luck on our part and a few mistakes on theirs about personal security we will do to them what they are doing to the world.

“Gentlemen thank you for you time and; Happy Hunting”!

ryujin and gozaimon were sat in the living room continuing their game of go along with discussing the current situation .. when the rhythmic beeping of a ham radio broadcast that had been picked up started .. both continued looking at the go board as they listened ..

so there are other pockets of survivors .. and ones from the sound of it who are trying to rebuild interesting .. thinking of the four whose heads he had mounted on the spikes before ryujin commented from this broadcast we know at least not all the people here have reverted back to savages .. but were those who sent the broadcast to be trusted or was this a trap to round up slaves for the hydra that lay hidden behind all this ..

ryujin spoke a brief command the wall mounted tv screen lit up with a map overlay .. then another command transmission source location .. it took a few minutes then a location on the map lit up .. ryujin and gozaimon studied the map then finally ryujin spoke another command shutting off the display ..

well gozaimon should we check it out ? if they are who they claim they could use our help at least temporarily ..
gozaimon replied yes and we can continue to journey to the coast then home to japan as we discussed earlier .. minds made up it didnt take long for them to prepare to set out ..

with preparations complete standing in the living room one last time ryujin spoke a single word activating the houses built in self-destruct sequence nothing would remain of the house once they left .

Once outside and away from the house ryujin sent two brief encrypted messages on his sat phone one to his father the other to the shinsengumi headquarters in kyoto ..

as the sun set ryujin and gozaimon set off on their way .. a short time later a blast tore through the night .. all that remained of ryujins house was a smoking crater ..

Sue-Lin's father walked up to his daughter and asked, "Australia wants to know as much as we can discover about the NAR and Los Oculto. Do you want to come?"

Later, they left, her on a very quiet trail bike and he in the dune buggy which was also as quiet as was possible. He towed a small trailer while Sue-Lin scouted ahead. As night fell, they switched to night vision and vanished into the growing darkness.

Sandra, at long, long last, reached her feet, gazing into the wasteland.

Her hand slid over her hip, over her gun, and her stomach gave a loud, gurgling rumble. Still, she ignored it, hoping to make her food last for as long as possible.

As she stared into the emptiness of the Mojave, she exhaled, thinking of her uncle.

"Where are you..." Sandra breathed, her nearsighted eyes functioning even worse than usual due to the darkness.

Tchk.

She stopped, rearing like a cat.

Sandra looked to her side, staring at the weeping willow. It took her a few seconds to process what she saw.

From behind the big tree, a small child was slowly stepping out of the night. He froze when he spotted Sandra, his eyes wide and frightened.

He couldn't have been more than five years old; he was very skinny and short, and he had inch-long brown hair slicked backwards and tucked behind his ears. His brown eyes met her blue ones, and they both remained still for nearly a full minute.

"I'm friendly," Sandra told him, holding up her hands. "I promise."

The child didn't move or speak.

"Who are you? Where'd you come from?" Sandra asked.

The child gulped, attempting to gather his thoughts.

"My m-mom fell down." He stuttered, fighting back tears, although it looked as though he'd already been crying. "She w-won't wake up... w-won't move..."

Sandra looked ominously at him.

"How long have you been out here alone?" She asked him.

"Since y-yesterday." The child answered, wiping his nose with his wrist.

"What're you doing way out here in the middle of nowhere...?" Sandra wondered.

"M-mom said we had to leave... cause... c-cops came to our house a week ago... tried to g-get us... and we ran away... we went to auntie's house for a few days, and the cops came there too..." He explained.

Not cops, Sandra knew. Black ops.

"She s-said we had to go north..." He went on.

"Northwest." Sandra uttered. "Your mom was taking you northwest, wasn't she?"

The child nodded, sniffing.

"What's your name?" She asked him.

"James." He said, hiccuping.

"You want to come with me, James?" Sandra asked in a light, kind voice that didn't belong to her. She held out her hand, giving him a small, sweet smile.

James nodded, wrapping his tiny hand around her fingers.

Sandra examined him for a moment.

"You look familiar." She said, glimpsing at his hair, then into his eyes again. "Did you live in Las Nueva Era...?"

"Y-yeah, until the cops..." James mumbled, sniffling again.

"Shhh, don't worry about it, everything's fine now." Sandra told him, hoping dearly that she was telling the truth. "Come on, let's go. And my name's Sandra, alright? I'm gonna look after you from now on... is that okay?"

James nodded again, tightening his grip on her hand as she lead them away from the tree.

Sandra never would have thought she could bond with a child so well... and she surely never thought she'd be caring for one. Still, lost in an apocalyptic wasteland, instinct came first... and Sandra's only thought now was protecting the child.

As they headed further north, Sandra had no clue that her friends were right on her tail, less than a day's walk behind her.

All of the maps of known useful points for mission "PAYBACK" had already been handed out and the new security badges were waiting to be issued after all the new photos were processed.

Jason sat across a table from his old friend Ray.

"Well shorty, what do you think of the plan" ?

"Ray it is something I believe we can do. I know I can speak for all the teams we are really grateful for this opportunity and chomping at the bit to get under way".

"Did you hear John's comment after the briefing or had you already stepped out"?

" No, I guessed I missed it while I was talking to Wrabbit".

"John was complaining someone had already nuked the sphincter of the COLON-ies 'D.C.' and how he had always wanted to take a stroll through the halls of congress and the senate with his team. By the way he said it I can only assume it was not for a meet and greet"...

"I do not remember John ever taking anything as personnel as he has this whole Armageddon mess".

Ray looked at Jason and asked if he wanted to change John out with another team leader.

"No, no, no, I do not think that will be necessary Ray...John is mad ...but not stupid mad..... It is just something that I have noticed since we left our last Op.. he seems ...auh.... bitter".

"It is just that, ..(Jason's stare was somewhere in time and someplace else)... I have seen John carry out missions that would make most people puke and cry for their momma yet he carried on afterwards... same old John.. This last Op though; with the kids.... and all of us being betrayed by the very people who sent us in...Red White and Blue and all that.... I think it bothered him more than he is willing to admit to. I'll admit it bothered the crap out of me and it still does; it is like everything you believed in has been pulled out from under you....just one big lie"!

Now... after all we have been through fighting for the country and flag........ we come back to what is left of civilization in this part of the woods and there are still missions to be completed and more killing to be done... this Op.... we want big time.. a little payback.... however, you have to wonder when it will ever end"?

Ray looked at Jason for a moment before speaking.

" I agree it is like a child who has lost their parents and now is all alone. I think in most ways it has shaken us all to our very core principles. We can get pissed and fight back or just lay down... there will be... 'no doubt'.... someone shortly, who will come buy and put us out of our misery if we do though".

"Shorty, there are 3 domestic groups that I am aware of fighting for what is left of this country and at least two international groups who want the North American continent wiped clean of all homo sapiens. I am afraid my friend the old fashion way of killing is just getting started for we are not the only ones with the anti-virus vaccine".

Jason looked back at Ray and said, "Somehow I knew you were going to say part of that".

Ray asked if any of the teams had suffered reactions to their Red Flu Vaccinations and was told, "Other than a few with muscle soreness and fever blisters they all seem to have made it through with flying colors".

"Well at least that is positive news for a change, huh".

"Y'okay?"

As Sandra and James wandered through the outskirts of the Mojave, the morning slowly faded into early afternoon, and the sun began baking them alive. James was sweating profusely, and his expression seemed disturbed, but he wasn't saying anything.

"Hey, you okay?" Sandra asked again, giving his hand a shake.

"Tired..." James moaned, yawning.

Sandra stopped, grasped James by his under arms, and lifted him up into the air. It wasn't difficult... he was very small.

She placed him upright on her shoulders, his little legs dangling over her chest. He grabbed onto her neck for support, and Sandra continued through the desert with James sitting cozily on her, overlooking everything around them.

Meanwhile, a short ways back, Alan and the others--unlike Sandra--hadn't slept. They'd covered more ground than they thought they did, but nevertheless, Alan was growing more irritable by the second, convinced that they were making no progress.

"Sweety," Carol's voice came from over his shoulder, instantly annoying him. "Did... did you bring a gun with you? The rest of us brought a gun... I don't want you to get hurt..."

"I have one." Alan replied tonelessly, slightly lifting his smock, revealing the small handgun on his hip. "Sue-Lin and Sandra both tried to give me pointers about shooting... goodness.. they think I'm so incompetent..."

When he trailed off, beginning to mutter to himself, Carol silenced.



"How much longer?" James asked from above Sandra's head.

"I dunno." Sandra answered honestly, her eyes scanning the endless Mojave, occupied only by a couple of trees, along with the dry, cracked ground. "We'll get there sooner or later. Let's try to walk a little more, then we'll take a snack break so--"

Then, Sandra froze, her heart jolting.

She didn't know if James saw it... she hoped he didn't...

It was yards away, baring its teeth, its firey, glistening eyes locked onto them...

Sandra never knew there were lions in the Mojave... her uncle never told her...

It was a sleek, female lion, with a thin coat, and it was fully grown, complete with flawless muscles on all four legs. It inched forward, glaring at her hungrily.

James released a whimper.

"Run." He told her very quietly.

"No." Sandra responded. "If we run... it'll chase us..."

On television, Sandra remembered watching the lions hunt... a single lion would chase their prey into an ambush, into a huge group of lions, and they'd all attack from every corner, rendering the prey helpless. And, Sandra suspected running would lead them directly into such a trap... besides... she couldn't hope to outrun a mountain lion... especially with James on her shoulders...

Alan and the others approached the scene, and they barely spotted Sandra before the lion lunged forward.

The walk had been a hot one and Alan seemed to be getting more irritable as they went on.

He's just worried about Sandra. Marcus mused. He was walking just behind Carol and Alan with Church and Angus. No one had really said anything the whole hike. Marcus tried not to act like a jerk to Church after the whole incident at the bunker when they learned of Jacks death. But it was easier since they were saving their energy to walk.

Off in the distance Marcus thought he saw a speck. He brought the rifle up to his cheek and looked through the scope. A quick adjustment brought into focus the speck.

"Hey guy's it's Sandra! It looks like she has a kid on her shoulder!" He cried out excitedly. "Oh sh!*"" He screamed. As he saw a lioness running towards her. He took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger, as he thought. Don't miss this or she's dead.

A loud *Craack* and Marcus felt his shoulder blaze in pain. The rifle fell from his numb grip.

"You got it kid!" Angus called out beside him, right before patting him in his shoulder.

"Oww, man that thing kicks!" Marcus noted as he held his sore shoulder. He bent down and picked up the rifle as the others ran to Sandra.

Sandra jumped, and James let out a scream.

A horrible, ear-splitting shot rang through the wasteland, and the lioness fell into the dry dirt just feet away from Sandra.

As Marcus dropped his rifle, Alan, Angus, and Carol rushed up to Sandra.

When Sandra turned, her mouth hung open, her eyes shining with shock.

"Where'd you come from--?"

"You blasted idiot!" Alan snapped, yanking into the collar of her leather jacket.

"Easy. now..." Angus squeezed his arm between Alan and Sandra, separating them.

Marcus strolled towards them, staring at the fresh lion's corpse.

"Thanks." Sandra told him, attempting to smile.

"Why leave without us? Huh?" Alan hollered, glaring at Sandra. "Go northwest to a random ghost town you've never heard of, oh that's brilliant, Sandra... oh, you know what's more brilliant? Going by yourself! Genius! You don't know who those people are. Why would you go alone?"

Sandra stared vacantly at him, lost for words.

"We got a radio message back at the bunker." Angus explained. "Said it was from Los Oculto, the NAR meeting place. I figured that's where you were headed."

"What did the message say? Is Dorian there?" Sandra asked.

Angus shrugged. "No idea. It was a vague message. Didn't tell us much of anything."

They all went silent for a few seconds.

"Who is he?" Carol asked, her eyes stuck on James, who was about two feet taller than everyone else, as he was still sitting on Sandra's shoulders.

"His name's James, I found him wandering around out here by himself." Sandra told them. "You guys... Dorian had people coming to the bunker. You should've-"

"The message from the NAR told us there were rioters and looters coming through Las Nueva Era soon. We needed to get out of there." Angus cut her off. "Plus... Dorian would hang my head on his bunker's wall if I let you wander off."

Sandra looked between them all, exhaling.

"Let's go."

Sue-Lin made it to the point on the map that was the best place to intercept her classmates. Her Dad lifted her bike onto the trailer, tied it down, gave Sue-Lin a hug and left. He would set up an Observation Post that would also allow him to provide over-watch support. He left and Sue-Lin found a small tree that offered some shade.

In moments she had blended in to her surroundings and was very difficult to see. Later, she heard a single gunshot, heavy caliber too. No other shots disturbed the scenery and after a few hours had, forever fled from our domain, she could see her friends and a child as well.

She checked a full 360 degree sweep and finding no threats, she sat up waiting for the inevitable Ninja Bush comments.

Church wandered over to where Marcus was standing, staring at the corpse of the big cat he had just killed. It was lying there, bleeding from a large hole near its ribs.

"Nice shot, Marcus," said Church, "I wouldn't have been able to do that if my life depended on it." Church was pointedly ignoring the fact that Marcus had dropped the gun after pulling the trigger. "Hey, you think you can maybe teach me a little about how to shoot?"