He watched Taylor hobble up and sit on the stairs below. The crutches were making everything slow going but Plissken would never leave Taylor behind. He was a friend, more a brother and now all Snake had left of what he might call family. Taylor was the last remnant of the life he had before. Plissken found himself clinging to it with the last shred of his sanity and his ever decreasing humanity.
Slowly he looked up at the landscape as he pulled a cigarette from his pocket. Snake lit it as he scanned the area. First looking to the north where they'd come from then to the other directions. He saved west, the direction he intended on going for last. The sun was low in the west. Only a sliver was peeking over the distant trees. A town or small city lay between the tower and the distance.
Plissken had no issues with cities. He could care less if there were a few people around or a lot. For the most part anymore he ignored everyone with cold indifference. This city though set his jaw. Without signs yet he'd assume it was Cheyenne but he wasn't sure. Where it was didn't matter. What was important at the moment was the rainbow haze that settled over it in the sunlight. Poison gas was colorless but in the rising and setting sun it burned brighter than a box of Crayolas. Snake knew that brilliant haze anywhere. It was even turning purple and orange as the light faded with the setting sun. There was no choice but to go around.
The south didn't look much better. The haze filled the valley as far as he could see both north and south. That left one choice, crossing it. Snake threw his dead cigarette off the side and started back down. After the injury to his eye gas didn't sit well with him. Crazies unnerved him further but he smiled when he got back down to Taylor.
"I think we're on the boarder of Wyoming." Snake commented not sure how to bring up the subject of the looming gas cloud.
"You see anything else up there?" Taylor asked as he started to transverse the uneven ground back to the Hummer.
Snake didn't speak at first while he forced down his own unease with the situation. "The entire valley's filled with gas. Not shit of a way to go around the bullshit either."
Taylor nodded. Though the man didn't like the situation he trusted Snake. They had been friends nearly as long as either could remember and now Taylor depended on Snake for almost everything since the injury to his leg. Taylor got in and set the crutches aside.
"Shouldn't be too bad though. Looks like highway all the way through." Snake commented as he buckled up. It was more to relax himself than Taylor but it likely would do it for both of them. The less time they spent in the gas cloud the better they would both feel about the situation. Snake pulled on his mask and smiled behind it when he saw Taylor in his. After all the years on the front where you wore a mask more often than not, the mask was a comfort. It reminded Snake that this was far less deadly than what he already had been through.