"So where are we going next?" The cityscape that Alice saw out of window was just a desolate shell of what Knoxville had once been. The sky was grey and weeping, the only sounds John could hear was the tapping of water droplets against the windshield and the humming of the Escalades engine. In the trunk lay compiled the food that they had found so far, extra ammo along with the fire arms that they had. In the back row of seats were the extra clothing they had scrounged up, blankets and pillows, books and other miscellaneous objects, and finally there packs with the essentials Alice's was loaded with water bottles and medicine. "We can siphon what gas these cars have left, there seems to be a pool of rainwater where part of the road collapsed." John stopped the SUV, got out opened up the trunk and handed Alice a homemade purifier and a bucket, "Remember run it through three times and watch your six." Ali nodded, accepted the tools, and made for the pool. Just as John had said there was a giant hole in the road, filled with algae green rain water. As Alice went for water, John took a rubber tube from the back of the rig as well as a red plastic gas can. The first vehicle was a weathered taxi cab which only gave him a gallon of usuable fuel. The second car was a mid-sized sedan, from it he got eight gallons.

"I've found water, and I also found a back road leading out of this shit hole, and it has no giant holes in the road or vine growth. Alice explained the direction in which the road was and after refilling their four canteens and fueling up with the five siphoned gallons of gas. "Okay lead the way little missy." They took the exit 95 that said it would lead to Addison in 46 miles. "You can sleep if you want Ali, it's been a busy day for us all." Taking her uncles advice Ali dozed off, her dreams were more pleasant than usual. In her dream John and Alice were miles away from DC, but when they reached the military built wall the man at the check-in station had no face, instead what she saw was what the face of death must look like. He had an obsidian skull for a head and his eyes were two purple lights shining intensely, from his mouth erupted purple flames as he said in a reptilian like voice "welcome to hell my dear!" And the walls crumbled away leaving just the two of them alone in the world.

She woke up to peculiar smells and a rough wet thing rubbing against her face, a tongue that's it. But who the fuck was licking her. Before she opened her eyes she reached up to feel hair, not human hair no it was too soft to be human. She opened her eyes and saw two pairs of blue puppy dog eyes, a snout nuzzled against her cheek, and the shaggy black mane of a very friendly black-lab. "Mornin' Alice, this here is Buck. I found him in this ranch house all alone, still guarding his masters property waiting for him to return. He isn't a very good guard dog though, he is too damn friendly for that." THe dog must have been 130 pounds, he gave a another big lick at Alice's face and a soft friendly bark. "Where are we, have we reached that Addison place yet?" Alice yawned and stretched her arms over her head. "We are at the Addison community ranch, a nice little town there is a small group of survivors a few miles into town, when you were out I bargained and traded with them. I gave them two double A batteries and offered to sharpen their knives and blades in exchange for a local map and extra fuel."

Alice had found a few musty old blankets and a cardboard box and made a bed for buck that could fit in the rig. Also there was some preserved dear meat that they finished in the three days that they were there. John found a bolt action 44' magnum rifle and a little 22', "Here is something for you, it's more your size and doesn't kick too bad. It is a 22caliber semi auto, it has a scope so that's always good." The rifle that John chose was less petite and more monstrous, a 44caliber magnum with a suppressor on the muzzle, and as scope that probably made the gun foot out to a thousand yards, and it could probably still fly for another thousand.
They fed Buck scraps is deer meat and bone each night, and in just three days he had become a member of their family, the two of them laughed a lot and were much more happy than they had been in a awful long time.

"We'll we should pack up, make sure Buck does his business now and that goes for you too Ali." In an hour they had fully packed all the belongings that they needed, they left a frying pan and a few spices behind."The local survivors say that there is a large group of survivors who are headed to Maryland, they are staying in Birmingham so that's where we are going." John said this with more confidence than usual in his decision making ability. From what they said there was woman and children among them, they have an custom armored bus and stack piles of food, fuel, and weapons. And being in a large group for more than half of the remaining journey was an offer that he wouldn't let slip away. "We'll it settles it then, we are off to the magic city."

John, Alice, and Buck had been on the road for two days and a rusty road sign said that Birmingham was 32 miles away. The days seemed to stretch on forever, they rarely stopped but when they did they searched the area for hunters and restocked their supplies. When the sun was setting they stopped and started a fire with the flint and steel that was in Alice's pack. "John, do you ever wonder if things will ever go back to normal?" Alice asked as she stared at the stars in all their glory. "It really depends on what your opinion of what 'normal' is I guess, and eventually a new government might rise or the military some how wins. I believe it will all things have an end even the end itself."

And with that she fell asleep, John picked her up and put her in "shotgun". He drove for what seemed to be four hours. But then he saw the worn sign reading: Birmingham 1 mile. All of a sudden an armed man stepped into the middle of the road a put a hand motioning for him to stop the vehicle. He gently applied the breaks and got out of the car. "What is your purpose here? Are you here to intercept our journey? State your business!" The man had a short beard and seemed to be frightened of John he pointed a shotgun at John's head.

"My name is John Dale Stanton, I am ex navy seal I served for twelve years, my niece is in the Escalade her name is Alice. We heard of a group of survivors heading to Maryland, we are headed to DC. We have weapons in the car, Alice has a switch blade on her and I have a Bowie on my left leg." The man checked the weapons and food supply and told John to follow him. The man mounted a Harley and motored ahead dodging the obstacles easily.

John was escorted into a large building that seemed to be an old shopping mall, one of the survivors offered to park the car in the underground parking center for him, John accepted when they told him that Alice would be taken care of. He was lead into a old candy store, sitting at the counter was a group of people all eyes turned to John, so you're the tourist who would like to join our group."

Alice woke up in a soft bed with a full belly it felt so good not to worry any more, they had been with the group for only eight days and yet they were already at the border of Alabama and Tennessee, with Nashville in their sights. There were about four other children about Alice's age but she was the type who rather hang out with those much older than her. It almost seemed as if everything was going to be okay.

But the world is just full of surprises and tricks.

The Apartment - Lower Manhattan

Alice and Grant had a small dinner of raviolis, rice, and beans. They ate in complete silence, since Alice's mind was so far away from the small apartment in Lower Manhattan. That day had been one that Alice was sure would change her life. Before, despite the horrible things that had happened, Alice had always held a romantic view of the world, certain that just notions would always prevail. She couldn't help but feel as if she had morphed into a completely different being by shooting that man. Would she lose who she was before all of this? But what if losing the person she was had to be done? Her contemplation was interrupted when Grant spoke.

"Don't worry about a thing, Alice. Everything will be fine because you did what was necessary for us to live... I know you've never had to do that before. Thank you." Grant said.

Grant must have been able to sense that this whole situation was troubling her deeply, because his comforting words seemed to come just at the right time. Alice pushed the ravenous thoughts to the back of her mind, and tried to enjoy their meal.

After a few moments he added, "Your wound is patched up pretty good. In a little bit I'll be able to remove them depending on how well it keeps up." Grant bundled Alice up and carried her to the bed, depositing her gently into the comfortable sheets. He applied new bandages on her wound and bid her to sleep well.

Alice watched from a crack in the bedroom door as Grant laid down on the couch, closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep. With a smile, she did the same.

Eric woke up to his alarm clock the next day. He slapped his hand on it, turning it off, it read 5:30. HE groaned and got up from his bed. He did his normal routine, took a shower, brushed his teeth, made a small cup of coffee. Drinking it, he walked into his brother's room. He was surprised to see him propped up reading a book.

"Wow, it looks like the medicine did the trick"

"I do feel a little better" Josh croaked. Eric walked up to him and took his temperature.

"Good, 100 degrees, much better then you had been" Eric took the bottle, took the medicine with a syringe and injected him again. "You just get well, ok?" and he kissed his brother on the forehead.

"I will bro." Eric smiled and left him in his room.

"Eric..... ya there?" came a voice from his radio

"Yes Jeff, what is it?"

"Ya, I was running some tests on the motor and ... lets just say there was some problems and I need some more spark plugs, can you get some while you're out?"

"I can. Do you have an ETA on the boat?"

"A month, maybe two, it still has some hull damage and I have slim pickings to fix it. If you could find me, like, 40 survivors, I could build us an old fashioned wood boat in about 3-4 weeks"

"Lets just stick to 1st plan"

"Cannnn do!". Eric turned his radio to near silence and went over to a map on the dinning table. HE already checked most major buildings in middle Manhattan. He now had to check out lower Manhattan, and he was afraid there would be more survivors down there. He sighed, picked up his gear and weapons, went back down to the 5th floor and exited his tower, going down to lower Manhattan.

Gabrielle woke up, the half rotted bed was a welcome change from the hard floor and a thin blanket. She grabbed a bottle of water and took a sip from it before opening a tin of fruit and eating her breakfast. She packed her bag full of the food and water she'd found, hid the rest of the stuff under a floor board and made her way out of the building, once outside she drew a large white X on the door in chalk.

Gabrielle followed the road up and looked up at the sky. She rubbed her eyes and sighed, the days used to be so easy and now, now everyday was the day you were going to die if you made one mistake. Gabrielle clenched her fists, no mistakes. None. She was going to survive, she'd survive the raiders, the every decreasing food and water supplies and the harsh terrain. She'd survive and hopefully make it back to England to pay her respects to her family. She noticed something at the Trump World Tower, a guy was climbing down it. "Please, please be good." Gabrielle ran as fast as she could to the base of the tower. "Hello?" She called out , hoping the guy would hear her. "Please, I have food and water, and know where to get more."

Eric had gone only a few steps away when he heard a voice call.

"Hello, Please, I have food and water, and know where to get more." He turned around to see a women coming towards him. He raised his M14 and fired two shots at the ground in font of her and he quickly dived behind a car to his left.

"Put down your pack, interlock your fingers and slowly come towards me" Eric said, pointed his m14 right at her, while fishing a zip-tie out of his pack. This is the first time in 3 weeks that someone came near his tower. Did she see how he climbed down and used the rope to retract the latter? Who ever she was, if she was smart and just leve him and his brother alone, she would live.

Gabriella let out a shriek when the man fired at her, she crouched behind a post box and listened for him to say something.
"Put down your pack, interlock your fingers and slowly come toward me." Gabriella sighed and shouted back to him.
"Look pal, for all I know you're just going to steal my food, rape me and then kill me." She put her hand up into the air. "I'll keep my hands where you can see them and stay this distance. Okay?" She slowly stood up and turned around to face him, her hand up in the air. "I'm not going to hurt you or cause any trouble. I just... I miss my family, I dunno where they are or if they're even alive." She looked him right in the eyes and blinked back her tears. England was too far for any sort of information to reach her out her in New York.

(OCC: Please excuse the god-modding, I'm leaving for the 150th Gettysburg and won't be around till July 9th. If you want to do small interactions w/ Eric, he won't kill unless he as too, he will scare you off with one of his mounted HMGs + he booby trapped his tower )

"We all lost loved ones." Eric growled and he slowley came towards her. "Put out your arms" he commanded, and she did as she was told and he put a zippy tie around her hands. "Turn around". He commanded. "Now, that zippy tie can be easily cut on a sharp piece of glass, I want you to keep on walking until I don't see you anymore, then I will fire my weapon once. I never want to see you near my tower again." He watched as the girl walked away. They were finally coming up on his territory. Looks like he was stuck in his tower for the time being.