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Cars have become rare in the years following the bombs. Many were stripped for parts in the early days, and ones that still run, or can be made to run, are fought over by survivors. They can fetch large amounts of money for anyone who is willing to part with one.

Texas summer's were often long and wet. Raining six days out of the week, then on Sunday, the sun would come out and cook everything to a crisp, only for the rain to comeback on Monday and soak everything. It was the most annoying thing in the world, and it seemed as though it was back with a vengeance. The second we stepped out from under the bridge, back into the hell of the wastes, I wished we had kept going. Compared to normal conditions, I would much rather put up with wind and rain in my face and having to shout to be heard than put up with that mother fucking sun. I wish I had a car that worked, but I'm no mechanic and even if I was it would put the biggest target of all would be slapped across my face and back and I wasn't willing to accept that when I had a family to look after. Having said that, we covered the six uneventful miles to Sherbrooke pretty quickly. I couldn't, or did I really want to, have imagined what I'd see before we even hit the city limits. About 4 miles from the city, there was a road block set up, at the end of those wire guard rails that only lifted trucks ever had a chance of getting over. Tanks and MRAP's were sitting just inside the blockade, while mounted grenade launchers and a minigun guarded the outside. Only one car was past the barricade, and it was a little more than a rusted out hunk of Swiss cheese. Cars were backed up as far as I could see, many still containing the bleached remains of their former owners. Another thing I didn't fail to notice were the skeletons, thousands of them. They lay disassembled, scattered and mixed to the point where it was impossible to tell what bones initially came with each skull. The smell of blood, gasoline and death still somehow lingered in the air and a small shiver went up my spine when I noticed that the M134 was pointed in the direction of the Boneyard.

"Good God", I sighed, I'd never seen anything like this before, "did the bombs do this? Or did the Canadian army?"

"Army", Eirren said, "I remember hearing about this on the news. Sherbrooke went under lock down, Army had orders to prevent anyone from fleeing the city, by any means necessary. Tanks, jets, even artillery, anyone who managed to get out of the city limits was shot in the back for being a traitor."

"Just like in the USSR in the 1940's", I noted, "always thought we were better than that."

Eirren shook her head, "no, of course not, we're all the same."

"Apparently", I sighed as we pressed on, "just wish we could make use of the .308 left in that 134."

"Probably been stripped by now", Eirren told me.

"Yeah, in all probability."

We hopped the gate at the barricade and followed the road towards town, weaving through the congestion of cars, trying to avoid all of the frightened shadows that had been burned into the asphalt and cars. Sometimes I couldn't tell if the shadows were cast by the bombs, or by the sun itself. I had to take care to step over washed out and blackened skeletons that had managed to stay together over the years. I was very glad Nero was blind. The closer we got to town, the worse things became. More shadows, more bones and sounds of creaking, structurally compromised buildings that could give away at any time and kill us all. Rubble and smashed, unrecognizable items littered the street and down power lines that still held a charge coming from some unseen source sparked every time the wind blew them against a near by piece of metal. The skyscrapers on all sides stood silently in the baking wind, looming creepily over the dusty streets as empty monuments to the lofty heights that had been climbed to before World War Three escalated to it's globe shattering climax.

"Can't believe this is the city I grew up in", Eirren sighed bending over and picking up a piece of stained glass that had a barely recognizable picture on it. Sighing, she tossed it down and pulled her AKM off her back, "fuck this place man, the sooner we get outta here the better."

"Agreed", I nodded, "let's keep moving. Keep an eye out for any good bits of salvage."

"Mhmm", Eirren agreed.

We tried to keep as quiet as we could as we traversed the dead city. We kept low, up against building's if we could, crossing streets and more open areas one at a time so one of us could cover the other as they crossed. I realized very early on that we were likely going to have to put up for the night inside Sherbrooke, and I wasn't that happy about it. I hated cities, hated them with a passion. As far as I cared, they were just people traps and once they swallowed you that was it, you weren't getting out. Nevertheless, we persisted. About one hour after entering the city, we happened across a gas station that looked like it'd been a hideout at some point. Sheet metal nailed up to old wood with barbed wire in front of it circled around the front of the station. Four other fortifications arranged in a square made out of barrel's car doors, and other pieces of metal and wooden scrap. An old Ford F-150 sat in front of the station with two front flat tires and a cracked rear rim. Dust covered the windshield and I couldn't tell what color the truck was underneath all of the dust and sand. I could see a bunch of shelves with bags and boxes on them inside the station, but I couldn't see any evidence of anyone having walked here in years.

"I can see a bunch of things on the inside of this store", I said.

"Don't see a way in though", Eirren said, "looks like the last person to leave locked up this barricade."

"Then we go through it", I said setting Nero down and dropping my pack. I dug inside for my bolt cutters, which made short work of the barbed wire and once that was out of the way the barricade was easy to knock down.

"I smell something Dad", Nero said holding his nose in the air, "I'm not sure what though."

I took a sniff of the air, and I smelled it. That smell that if you smelled in the middle of the night, you were already dead. Rabids. Lots of them. The odor of incredibly salty sweat was hanging in the air like a heavy winter coat on a hanger that was no where near strong enough for it. I exhaled loudly.

"Damn, there's probably at least a few of them in there", I held my AR tight to my shoulder, turning the safety selector from Binary to Semi. Rabids were already incredibly weak, so putting two in each one from anything bigger than a 9mm+P was a waste of ammo. I needed to save all I could because I had a feeling we'd see a lot of Rabids and maybe some bandits before we made it out of town.

"Yeah, I can smell them now", Eirren said, "can't tell how many though."

Nero hid behind my leg, "if we can smell them, they can probably smell us."

"They won't come out buddy", I said crouching down, "they're not like us, the light from the sun will drive them insane."

"Why does the sun hurt them?", Nero asked as Eirren crept up to the window to peek inside.

"Their sickness", I said, "it drains all the pigment out of their skin and makes their fur or scales fall off. The sun can do whatever he likes to them at that point."

Nero looked like he might cry, "they're not gonna get us....are they?"

I petted his head, trying to reassure him, "no, they're not gonna get us."

Eirren crept back over to us, "here there be monsters."

"How many are in there?", I asked.

"10 or 15", she said.

"Is it worth clearing out?", I asked, "I couldn't see a whole lot from the road, but it looked worth it."

"Maybe if we can manage melee only", Eirren said, "I don't think Rabids are worth wasting ammo on."

"Either way it's a risk", I said.

"Everything is a risk", Eirren said, "we clearin it or not?"

"Yeah", I said after a moment of thought, "let's do it."

I set down my pack and dug out the folding shovel I'd found on the first day of my trip. I kept the edge razor sharp and a blow from this thing would more than sever a limb or cut through a neck. It'd slide through dragon scales like a hot knife through butter too, I'd almost lost all of the fingers on one paw from fucking up while sharpening it a few nights ago and would have had I not still had my gloves on. I found Nero a place to hide underneath one of the barricades in the center of the parking lot, because I figured since he got under the seat of that truck where almost no one could get at him, he could hide in the small space between the wood and the concrete and be safe. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that he got angry at me.

"I don't wanna hide!", he said, sounding like he was starting to cry, "please don't leave me here!"

"I'm only 20 feet away buddy", I said hugging him tightly, "I promise you that I won't leave."

Nero muttered something I couldn't make out and then said, "please don't die Dad. I can't take another death."

"We're not gonna die son, I promise you", I reassured him as he crawled underneath the wood, turning around so he was facing the door. For some reason, it made me wonder if he could see just a little bit, maybe outlines or blurs of color that let him pick out some objects. I returned to the entrance of the store, kicked my gear aside, and shovel in one hand with my pistol locked and ready to go, I stacked against the right side of the door.

"I hope you've got the number right", I said, "let's assume 15, just for safety."

She nodded, "you have a flash grenade?"

"I wish", I said, "I've got regular frags, but that might destroy something valuable."

Eirren leaned her metal pole up against the wall and pulled a rusted can with a fuse in it out of a pouch hanging off her waist, "this should get their attention without ruining anything valuable."

She pulled out a disposable lighter and after some trouble, managed to get the fuse lit. I pulled the door open with my free paw and she tossed the makeshift noise maker inside. A few seconds later, it went off with an ear splitting bang, but didn't seem like it did a whole lot, until I heard every Rabid inside get pissed off at once. A bone chilling shriek cut through the hot afternoon air in such a way that I'm not sure I have something to compare it to. Inside, I could hear the sounds of bare feet on the tiled floor as the Rabids flocked in to see who was invading their turf, they weren't happy to see us.

"Kill you!", one of the male Rabids spat as he leaped at me through the glass door and instantly caught my shovel to the side of his head. The blade stuck a good four inches into his skull and he became dead weight nearly instantly as his friends came running to avenge him. Eirren managed to land nasty lacerations on the arms and backs of two of them, the pain of which brought them to the ground and kept them from moving, all they could do was cry. The rest of the Rabids poured out of the store to get to us, tripping over each other and spilling like someone knocked over a cup of BB's. Eirren and I hit them while they were downed and managed to kill off the bulk of them, but two of them managed to get up and went straight for Eirren, knocking her over. As soon as I noticed what was happening, I jumped over the pile of bodies and stuck the shovel clean through the back of one of them, jerking him aside, the shovel's blade pulling out a long string of bloody intestines which stained the washed out asphalt red as I forcibly removed it from my victim's lifeless carcass. The remaining Rabid picked up a length of metal pipe and retaliated as I moved in to kill him, landing a strike dead between my horns. I saw a flash of black and stumbled backwards, tripping and falling on one of the bodies as the other rabid jumped a good 5 feet in the air, landing on top of me. Before I could raise the shovel to stake the fucker, he stomped on my wrist, forcing me to let go. He growled and spat at me as he tried to sink his teeth into my neck, but I snapped back, my teeth nicking the tip of his nose, which forced him to back off. His deep, blood red eyes glowed like fire as he and I fought each other like animals, reduced to teeth and claws and both of us on a nearly level physical playing field. After a brief struggle, I managed to kick him off me and get up. He dropped to all fours circling and growling a growl to make a living wolf jealous. I dropped to all fours as well, feeling my claws inch their way out of my fingers. We paced, circled, each of us trying to make the other back off. Glancing in Eirren's direction, I could see she was trying to get the bodies of two dragons off her, but wasn't strong enough. Her shotgun was just barely out of her reach, but the look on this Rabid's face told me he was one of the few who'd kept it together enough to know how to kill people using firearms, and he certainly had the scars to prove it.

"You killed my friends", he growled with nasty, yellow brown spit dangling from his open maw, showing me his teeth, which still looked well taken care of, sharp too, "and now I will kill you."

"Go ahead and try it you godless heathen", I growled, "I'll gut you just like I did your friends, weapon or not."

The Rabid dug his claws into the old parking lot as he snarled at me, making the jump with his arms out stretched and jaw wide open. At the last second, I flipped onto my back and hit the dirt, slashing as hard as I could with both hands across his gut, tearing him wide open. He hit the ground with a skull crunching crack as his insides spilled out with a horrible sloshing sound, similar to the noise you get when you fill a bucket up with really good mud and it pours out like water. I kicked myself up, grabbed my shovel and without any hesitation I forced the blade through his skull, cutting his head in half. Blood ran like a river from the hole as the top part of his head detached and wobbled for a bit on the ground before going still.

"Kill that mother fucker", I said going over to help Eirren up.

"Damn things are heavy for being so thin", Eirren commented as she stood up and picked up her pack. She went to get Nero while I moved into the store, shovel still ready. It wasn't any bigger than the store that was in Lake Jackson back home. The counter was up against the left most wall and the arrangement of shelves formed four isles in the middle of the store with the coolers in the back. The coolers were empty, but the shelves were lined with all kinds of boxes, bags and useful items. There was entirely too much to take with us, so it was pick and choose, for me at least, Eirren was gonna have a field day. I lowered my shovel as she stepped in with Nero in her arms. I could tell he'd been crying, the fur on his muzzle was soaked and his ears were flat against his head. Little guy must have been scared out of his mind.

"I can smell all of the blood", Nero whimpered, "you and Mom are...okay, right?"

"We're fine little dude", I smiled, "they knocked us around a bit, but none of them managed to bite us."

Nero wiped his eyes as Eirren set him down on the counter. He sat there and hanged his head, perking up his ears, just listening to what was going on.

"I think it was worth the risk", Eirren said observing the duffle bags that lined the shelves. She opened one up and reached inside, pulling out a Canadian EX-2 rifle. I'd seen pictures of them online pre war, and felt it was a very nice rifle, but this one was modernized. Plastic stock, picatinny rail and Troy Iron sights. The magazine was full up of some nasty looking .30 caliber rifle rounds.

"Yes. Yes this was worth the risk", She said with a hint of lust in her voice, "where have you been all of my life?"

"EX-2", I commented, "very nice rifle. It's aged well."

Eirren had this huge, little girl in a toy store grin on her face. She'd obviously wanted one of these rifles a very long time, couldn't say I blame her. Eirren tore apart the store, looking for anything we could use and she ended up finding a bunch of food, water, weapons and ammo. While she was sorting everything out and deciding what she wanted to take and leave behind, Nero perked up.

"Dad, I smell something"

"What you smell bud?", I asked.

"Four...no five people, two coyote's, a fox, a raccoon and a Mink", Nero said, "they're somewhere out front but I can't tell where."

"We've got company", I said yanking Nero off the table and hiding behind one of the shelves. I pulled my gear towards me, shouldered my pack and charged my AR-15, switching the trigger back to Binary. Eirren grabbed her pack, the EX-2 rifle and a bunch of magazines and hid next to me, squirreling everything away while someone outside started yelling.

"We saw you in there and I can smell you!", a male said, "you can either come out and surrender the stash and everything you've got on you, or I can come in there and kill you myself."

"Take note of the pile of dead Rabids outside asswipe", Eirren shouted, "if you wanna come in here and get us, be my guest! It'll give us a reason to fuck up your day!"

"How about this instead", another voice chimed in, still male, but younger sounding and higher pitched, "the male dragon, are you listening?"

I pulled the pin off a frag, "I'm listening."

"Leave the bitch and the kid wolf and you can walk away scott free."

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen", I said, "want my partner and kid? Come your ass in here and get us."

"Your funeral fucker!", the male laughed, "All right boy's let's take them out!"

"Cover your ears Nero", I told my son as I tossed the frag out of the window.

"GRENADE!", one of the bandits shouted. I peeked out with my AR just in time to see one of them drop his Ak-47 and grab his friend to shield him from the blast. Taking the opportunity, I shot through the first target, the Mink, and killed him, and I know I hit the Coyote too, because he flinched and fell over, the grenade finishing them off, which left the other Coyote, the Fox and the Raccoon.

"You sons of bitches will pay for that!", he said as a shotgun blast tore through one of the shelves, a pellet skidding across my left ear and burning it. The pain was bad enough I thought I was the next VanGoh, but putting a paw up to my head told me I still had both ears. I peeked out of cover, spying the Fox sticking another shell into a pump gun. He was holding the weapon in a way that said he was skilled with it and he had a leather Police belt on, could be a former cop, or maybe just a thug who'd taken it from a victim, either his own or of the bombs. I didn't give much of a thought as I shot him down and that left two targets, the Raccoon and the other Coyote. But I didn't see him, and I almost didn't hear him. If he hadn't kicked that can I would have never heard him coming. I turned around just in time for him to kick the door in and nail me with 10 gauge slug straight in the chest. It had no chance of getting through, because not only did I have a plate on, but no slug was capable of getting through dragon scales. Of course there wasn't much fighting the kentic energy behind a 2 ounce chunk of lead leaving it's gun at twice the speed of sound and the damn thing sent me sprawling and coughing to try and catch my breath. The Coyote pumped the shotgun and tried to turn on Nero at the exact same time that Eirren came up with her Over-Under.

"Do you like roast?", she asked as she pulled the trigger, spraying the coyote with burning magnesium pellets, instantly setting him alight. The Coyote screamed in agony and fell in a failing mess to the floor, begging to be put out of his misery.

"Still one target", I grunted as I stood up, "where's the Raccoon at?"

"I haven't seen him", Eirren said sticking another Dragon's breath round into her shotgun, "might be the sniper of the group."

"Probably", I said grabbing up Nero, who had his paws over his ears and his eyes squeezed tightly closed, "you take point, I've got Nero."

Eirren nodded and peeked out from behind the shelf, nearly getting her head taken off by what sounded like a .338 Lapua magnum.

"Yep", Eirren said, "sniper, sounded like a .338 Police rifle."

She packed away the shotgun and charged a round into the EX-2, crouching down near us.

"I'll get the fucker to keep his head down while you get Nero and get through the back door", She said, "you told me you can throw a grenade to save your life?"

I nodded, "ready to see my arm at work?"

She grinned, "do me proud."

I nodded as she stood up and started racking the rifle as fast as she could pull the trigger, and she had a pretty impressive finger. I stood up and rushed out the back door as quickly as I could. The alley way behind the store was rather tight, filled to the brim with dumpsters and foul smelling trash. I set Nero on the lid of one of the dumpsters and peeked out from behind the building, spying the raccoon across the street with an Armalite AR-30 resting on one of the highway dividers. He was roughly 50 yards away. Easy mode. I took a frag from my vest, pulled the pin and let the spoon fly off, starting to cook the frag. I let it stew for two seconds before I chucked it. The frag hit it's mark dead on, striking the scope of the AR-30 and falling to the ground. The Raccoon had no chance of escape before the grenade went off. When the smoke and the dust settled, the only evidence he'd ever been there was a smoldering, twisted police rifle that was laying on our side of the divider.

"Clear", I said pulling up my AR-15.

"Clear", Eirren replied, "that was a hell of a throw."

"It was easy mode", I laughed, "50 yards ain't even a real throw."

Eirren rejoined me, "you're full of it, you know that right."

"Most people take a few weeks to figure that out", I said.

Eirren picked up Nero, "let's get the fuck out of this city."

We continued to press forward. As the hours walked passed us in the opposite direction, the sun began to sink below the horizon, taking the light Eirren and I needed to travel safely with us. As our shadows on the road grew longer, so did the risk of Rabids and gangs of survivors out hunting them. We had to find shelter, and find it soon. Either that, or a truck with All Wheel Drive that ran, though that was likely asking for too much.

"Starting to get dark", Eirren sighed, "and believe me, we do not wanna be caught out here in the fucking dark."

"Some of these old building's still look sturdy enough to provide", I mused glancing around at the multiple skyscrapers.

"Could also be full of Rabids", Eirren said, "don't forget that bit."

"How could I?", I asked, "so what do we do? Roll the dice or keep going?"

Eirren glanced around, appearing as though she was deep in thought, "gimme a minute, I've got an idea."

She handed Nero to me and disappeared inside a multi level department store. A minute or two and a light scuffle with what must have been Rabids later, she came back out, a map in her left paw, "Yeah, fuck you too asshole", she spat in the direction of the store, "I know exactly where we are. We're close to a place we can put up for the night. Guy who lives there should still be around, and he has enough weapons to field a small war. He doesn't like me too much, and the feeling's mutual, but he owes me a favor, and ain't no one getting into his house."

"What's the place?", I asked.

"You'll see when we get there", she told me flatly. I could tell she didn't wanna tell me shit about this if she didn't have to, and it kind of put me on my toes. Rather than voice my concerns, I kept my finger near the trigger and followed her, keeping an eye out for any place we could be jumped, and here, there were a lot of them. Everytime the sun caught a shiny piece of metal or glass and glinted, I thought I was seeing a rifle scope, could never be too careful these days I guessed. At about 5PM, after more than a few skirmishes with Rabids, we managed to clear the denser part of the city, but from what I could tell, still weren't any where near getting out of the city itself. Eirren told me that the Suburbs sprawled for a good five miles past this side of the city, which didn't make a bunch of sense to me.

"Why not just wrap the suburbs all around the city and use less space?", I asked.

"Canada has some nice things", Eirren shrugged, "our urban developers aren't one of those nice things."

"Fair enough", I laughed.

Ten more minutes of walking had Eirren checking a map and pointing to a tan, two story colonial style brick house that blended in perfectly with all of the other, tan, two story brick houses. The only way to tell that it might still be inhabited was the fact that there was a recently washed black Dodge Charger with some serious mods sitting in the driveway. Hell the driveway was still wet and a blue bucket was sitting out front near the garage. From where I was, I could see a curtain move aside, then close again.

"Well someone's home, that's for sure", I commented as I held my AR-15 tight to my shoulder.

"Don't raise that rifle if you value your life", Eirren quickly stated, "he'll dump you with a .20mm if you muzzle sweep him."

"I didn't, I just pushed it tighter into my shoulder."

"Don't raise it Arien", Eirren said, "seriously. Just trust me."

As we neared the house, a tall, black and red dragon with an AA-12 shotgun that had an ACOG scope and a Drum magazine on it, likely set up for slugs, exited the house and walked to the front of the driveway, his other paw on his hip. As we walked up to the house, Eirren quickened her pace and got between me and the other dragon, who I could now see had look on his face that told me he was about to laugh at us.

"I gave you a week before you were back", the dragon said, "what turned you around?"

Eirren shrugged, "new friends with an actual destination fell into my lap. Hunter, this is my friend Arien. He pulled a couple of rapists off me a few days ago, and we've been traveling together ever since."

"You're okay in my book brother", Hunter said shifting his eyes towards me. The red in them reminded me of Rabids, but they glowed in such away it was even more intimidating, "you don't look like much though. How'd you get the thugs off my friend here?"

"They dragged her into the house I was camping in", I said, "I came out of the room and surprised them."

"Having the drop on someone is never a bad thing", Hunter said, "what about the little guy? What's his story?"

"Arien found him inside a hot truck", Eirren said, "we don't know if his parents were killed defending him, or if they left him to die, but either way he's taken to us as his new parents, so we're stuck with him."

Hunter smiled and looked at Nero, "you're blind aren't you?"

"Yep", Nero answered, probably a little more cheerfully than he should have.

Hunter chuckled, "ha, I like you little dude, what's your name?"

"Nero", Nero told him.

"After the Emperor that burned Rome", Hunter laughed, "I'm not sure why, but the name fits you."

Nero smiled and rolled out of Eirren's arms, sticking the landing on all fours.

"Damn, he's good at that", Hunter said, "why don't y'all come inside and I'll get you something to eat huh? It'll be dark soon and the Rabids will be out."

"Don't have to tell me twice", I said following them inside.