A/N: Another update, hopefully earlier than the last one was.

Well, fearless leader, where do you think we are now?

"I don't know, why don't you tell me."

A long, agitated groan echoed through her head and she could feel the demon's temper raising; it would only take a few more hours of walking before he snapped. Or maybe she just liked to convince herself that that would happen. One hand moved to rest on the swinging gunrod behind her, as though to assure herself that it was still there and still in one piece. At this time, in this condition and out in the opening like this, an ambush could happen at any time with just one given word of it... she had to make sure to keep herself on full alert at all times. It was a tad bit difficult to do with her one eye still slightly impaired but there was little else she could do about that besides work around it. And so far, she was doing fairly well with keeping up with her surroundings. Nothing more than broken shells of what had once been a prosperous city. From the looks of the damages and the extent of destruction, she assumed it was one of the first to go down... she didn't know what city they were in or even if it was big enough to be considered significant; at this point, the Geist didn't really care much for it, they were just here to cause destruction and mayhem.

I don't know if you've been noticing but... their numbers are falling.

"How badly?"

Hmmm... I'd give it a few more years before they're completely wiped out.

"That's quite a bit of time... I'm not entirely sure if the human race will be able to last that much longer." she started; watching her step as she created her own shortcut and walked through a shrapnel-infested playground. The sound of glass shards breaking under foot echoed with every step.

...You're actually admitting doubt in their ability to last that long?

"It's not that..."

This is about that Commander again, isn't it?

"As far as I know, he's the only one who is capable of surviving this; he's the only one that we know of who can bring other people together and take down these Devil's rejects... If they lose him, there's no telling what will happen."

Do you mean to say if 'you' lost him?

"This is not the time for that." Alicia interrupted; pausing a moment as she stood by the melancholic skeleton of a swing set. She swore she just heard something... or maybe she felt it instead. No wait... there it was again. The ground vibrated underneath her, just lightly at first before it was followed by an even heavier tremor. She stood completely still and felt the vibrations course through her body and seemingly shake the blood in her vessels from wall to wall. Something wasn't right... the vibrations weren't from something falling and hitting the ground, or like a building collapsing... no, they were from footsteps.

Very large footsteps at that.

You have got to be fucking with me.

That wasn't too good.

Slowly, she turned back in the direction she assumed it was coming from; spotting the massive glut of a figure from quite a distance, then again, they were hard to miss. It's massive body ran parallel to even the tallest of skyscrapers; it's head able to top just about any building in sight, although at this point most of them had been destroyed to the point that they were no longer an example of relativity to the creature's height. The face was stretched over the massive tissue lump of a head with little to no neck visible; multiple mouths broke open over shoulders and chest, each one equipped with a set of teeth that seemed to snap eagerly at the air- as though expecting some kind of prey to be there. The giants varied with every sighting, in fact they were getting fewer and fewer with every passing month. This one had massive iron railing-like pipes merged in to it's right arm, almost as though it had equipped itself with another weapon of the sort. Most of them were seen welding some kind of heavy machinery and yet... this did not; she didn't question why and merely thanked whoever was listening that it no longer held the weapon. But, gun or no gun, it still posed a heavy risk and danger to anyone around. Including herself.

I hate to say it but at this point, our best option would be to avoid its sight and run.

"If we let it go, it could find those bases or it could find the others and it will destroy them." Alicia reminded. "I can't let that happen."

That is true but it's not a good reason to get ourselves killed either, now is it? Now, we can play this the easy way or the hard way. We can stay out of it's sight for now and find those bases, maybe warn them and see if they have the power to take it down themselves, or you can attempt to fight it now and fail horribly at it.

He had a point.

In this condition, she couldn't risk taking another serious hit, which just one stomp from that thing could shatter her spine... She would have to wait for that base before she engaged it in combat. It was still quite a ways off in the distance so she wouldn't have to worry too much of it seeing her now. Clearing the park area, she found herself back on an unmarked road and headed into the nearby alleyway for another shortcut. It was wrecked with trash cans, partly decomposed bodies, wet newspapers and other things she didn't want to question or think on. Whatever was crunching and breaking beneath her boot could stay as it was, just some form of trash in the back of her mind.

Jackson said the first base would on Ninth and Stanford... and as far as she could tell, she was no where close to being near them; the second base was outside of town and would have to be one of the last ones she hit; base three however... he said was close to a forest and... she could see the treetops from here. That was the riskiest one but it was the closest at this point, that's the only thing that mattered to her. Pushing herself free from the ugly confines of the alleyway, she worked herself closer and closer towards that ever growing tree line.

And what if they refuse to help? Ever think of that possibility?

"I don't think that will be a problem." she replied as she kicked her way through more and more debris land fields.

Oh? And why is that?

"If I have to force them to aid us, then so be it."

And if they're hostile instead?

"Then I will be just as hostile if I have to."

Please, all you would have to do is remove a few layers of gauze from that hideous outfit and you would have any kind of support you want.

She forgot she was still dressed in the duds that Marilyn had scrapped together for her. Easy to overlook

For you, it will be.

"Must you carry on this conversation?"

"I can't believe she just up and left by herself."

Jackson sighed as he watched the blonde-haired woman walk back and forth across the beaten floor; pacing the same broken tiles again and again till he was almost positive that they were going to give away eventually. "Think about it Marilyn, she's pretty much one of few people here who can actually handle herself. And if you think about it, we would've only been slowing her down. Plus, it would be better if we stayed here with Maxwell instead."

"Believe me, Jackson, I know; I understand that." she remarked; pausing just long enough to rest her tired hands on her aching hips. "I'm just... we've always relied on a buddy system whenever we go out scouting."

"Yeah but if you think about it, her buddy got injured; she's going to do whatever she can to make sure he goes out on another scouting trip with her."

"I guess you have a point..."

"You know I always do." he chuckled; rubbing at the back of his sore neck. "Now then, I think I'm going to go relieve Butch of his watchman duties and let him get some rest."

Marilyn wrinkled her nose for a moment. "Do you have to? He's just going to come back in here and bug me."

"And?"

"Fuck you Jackson."