It was sundown once again, and there seemed to be not a cloud in the sky. Joseph hoped that it would stay that way.

"Limerick." Answered Mathew as he continued focusing his eyes on the road. His hair had grown even longer since the beginning of their venture.

"Why?" Joseph asked, "What is there to do in a town called "Limerick"?" he shrugged his left arm while his right arm was firmly placed around Jaden's shoulders. She leaned into his chest and nudged his chin with her head, playfully.

"No clue, but we have to see if there is anyone to trade with." Matt answered again. Emile chimed in now from the back seat.

"I've never been through there. Mah' Pops and I would always take a more northern route."

"Well then I guess we're gonna have a little adventure," Martin said, "and hopefully you guys won't get stung to death by a swarm of giant bugs." He laughed to himself and Mathew gave him a quick clout on the back of the head with his disengaged power fist.

"OW! Those hurt whether they're on or not you know!?" Martin said while he rubbed his bruised head.

"I just hope that there isn't anything there except supplies that can walk themselves to the car." Joseph jested. Matt laughed.

"That would be a nice change of pace."

Clay was still searching around the store for supplies while Rosh leaned against the partially broken window just in case anybody happened by. Tumbleweed blew by once every so often but that was about as exciting as her day seemed to be getting. Her eyes jolted up when she thought she had spotted something moving on top of the building across the street from them. It was a brick building with a large sign atop it on which the letters had been crossed out with paint. Rosh was about to ask if Clay could hurry up, until she heard footsteps coming from the north road. She poked her head out of the broken glass and saw five raiders, armed with assault rifles. She gasped and then ducked back inside the building, running toward the back wall where Clay was looking across the shelves.

"Clay!" she said hushed. "Raiders!" Clay snapped into reality quickly and pressed up against the shelf of one of the front aisles, opposite the doorway. Rosh took the shelf across from that one. They both jutted their heads into the middle aisle and looked forward toward the window. Three of the raiders crossed into their vision before they thought it would be better to hide their heads completely. Clay swallowed hard before pulling his knife and speaking, quiet as a shadow.

"We may not make it, so we might as well even the odds…" Rosh was about to ask him what he meant, but he had already knocked his knuckles against the back of the shelving unit. One of the raider's heads shot over to the store.

"What is it?" another asked him. This raider was wearing a gasmask with a full visor.

"Go on ahead and search around… I'm gonna go check in here…" he drew his rifle forward and stepped slowly toward the door as the other raiders continued looking around the area. He drew closer and closer until Clay could easily hear his masked breathing. He stepped across the broken glass on the ground and then stopped when he saw the body of the Ghoul lying against one of the farther shelving units.

Clay was directly beside him, close enough to touch his grimy skin. He saw that the man was about to turn around and call for his buddies, so that's when he struck.

He dragged the Raider toward him by his shoulder and then pierced the man's throat with his combat knife, gagging him and putting him at death's door. Blood splattered to the floor as Clay twisted the knife and sunk it in deeper, severing the veins in his spinal column. He grabbed the man's body and drifted it down slowly to the ground in his arms, making sure to not produce any noise in the process.

"Rosh," Clay whispered, getting her attention, "Go around the other side of the shelf, wait for another to enter, and then shoot."

"What!?"

"Just do it!" he commanded. She, reluctantly, crossed over to the other side of the shelf and peered around the corner to see the window. One of the raiders was coming their way, with one of his friends following closely behind him. She pressed back up against the back of the shelf and breathed deeply. She looked down into her hands where she held her revolver; it had full ammo. Even though she had never killed anyone before, she had still fired a gun, and if any day was the day to become a killer it was today.

"Hey!" said one of the raiders, "Someone got Jim!" he said as he entered through the broken doorway. Rosh waited for the sound of the broken glass being treaded upon, and then she pivoted around the corner of the shelf with her gun held forward.

She fired twice, one hit the man in his shoulder and the other one missed his torso. He recoiled but she had already fired another shot. This final shot hit him in the mouth, blowing his jaw in half with its full stopping power. He fell to the ground and his friend began aiming around the very darkly lit facility frantically. Rosh ducked back behind the shelf.

"Where the fuck are you!?" he said before firing randomly around the room. Clay dived to the ground noiselessly under the cover of the loud shots as bullets pierced through his cover, barely missing him. Rosh looked over to see him diving, but had no time to do so herself as bullets came flying through her shelf. She was hit in the arm and doubled over in pain, crying out from the burning agony.

"Fuck!" Clay shouted as he grabbed his hunting rifle and rolled out into the open. He placed a single bullet perfectly into the Raider's forehead while the man reloaded. He could hear the other raiders now.

"I'm coming! Just keep shooting 'em!" One of the raiders said, not realizing that his friends were already dead.

Clay wasn't sure if he could take on two men with automatic weapons, but he would have to try. He slid over to where Rosh was and pushed her further to the ground.

"Just lay down! You'll be safer." He said before pulling back the bolt on the rifle and peering back into the aisle and looking outside, awaiting his opponents. The two psychotic men came running across the length of the store front with guns blazing in every direction. Clay let off one shot but fell to the ground to avoid more of their shots. It would be impossible to fight when they fought against him like this. He pulled back on the bolt once more and held his gun out to the front of the store, firing once randomly. No hit. He grabbed his revolver and loaded the one empty cartridge before leaning out of his cover and shooting three quick shots. Once again, no hits. More shots came bursting through his cover, barely missing him, and he fell to the ground once more.

Clay was prepared to meet his bitter, but deserved end. After living for so long as a free man, he would pay for his crimes with the ultimate price. He began counting his sins, and praying to a god that he was tentative of even believing in. The souls of the people he had killed would haunt him no longer, for their vengeance would be appeased.

Two shots, much louder than that of the automatic rifles, cut through the bleak situation and quieted the shots of the two Raiders. Silence dominated the street for a minute or two. Then a voice, raspy and groveled; the man whom owned the voice almost sounded barely able to speak.

"Hey! Are you two alive down there!?" the voice sounded not too distant. Clay was still shocked that he was not dead. Death would have to wait. He looked down at his clothes and saw that the masked raider's blood had been smeared across his undershirt and pants. When he forgot his voice, the man spoke again.

"Hello!?"

Clay snapped back, "Yeah! We're okay… thank you!"

"I heard the girl scream! Is she alright!?" asked the gravely-voiced man. Clay looked over to see Rosh still lying on the ground clutching at her bleeding arm. She was biting her lip to stop from crying out loud, but tears flowed down her cheeks regardless. Smoke was still rising from the bullet holes left all around the building.

"She's hit!" Clay answered, "Took a shot in the arm!"

"Bring her out here and we'll fix her up!" the man called before letting out a wheezing, hacking cough. Clay raised his brow.

"How can we trust you!?" he asked. The rough man laughed, wheezing again.

"I would have shot you through your cover by now if I wanted to kill you!" he said. Clay could not argue with that logic. He slowly crawled his way over to Rosh and grabbed her by the waist and shoulder, hoisting her to her own two feet. The two of them hobbled out of the store and Clay finally saw the face of the man who had saved their lives from atop the building across the street.

It was not a pretty face. Or a handsome face, or even an average face, and ugly seemed to be more of a compliment than an insult at this point.

The man who had saved their lives was a ghoul that had not yet gone feral, unlike the one that was lying dead on the floor in the convenience store. He had only holes for ears and no visible nose. His lips seemed not to be lips at all, just the same disgusting texture of skin as the rest of him. His skin was a sickly red/pink colour – when there was skin, at least. Patches of skin on his arms and neck were gone, revealing the muscles underneath, and it was safe to assume that other parts of his body suffered the same. In the places where there was skin, it appeared leathery and decayed. He had hardly a hair on his head.

As the two humans walked out onto the street, the ghoul reached down behind the sign and grabbed a duffle bag, which he then took with him down a ladder attached to the side of the building. He walked out from the alley beside the building and approached the two survivors of their bloody battle. He placed his rifle on the ground, what appeared to be a refurbished M1 Garand rifle. It must have been ancient, so Clay thought. He kneeled down in front of Rosh as she sat down in front of him. He was wearing full leather armor minus the sleeves. She got an even better look at his decayed face now. Both of his eyes were a sickly blue and grey color and they looked very murky, almost as if he were blind. Clay had been around numerous ghouls before, but as the ghoul reached into his duffle bag Rosh began to shake nervously.

"What are you?" she asked. Clay looked surprised.

"Ha!" the Ghoul laughed showing his yellow teeth, whatever few teeth he had left, "I'm a ghoul. Intelligent, Civilized, not like the one your friend popped in the head over there." He pointed to the convenience store. Clay watched as the Ghoul pulled a Stimpack and pliers from his bag.

"What's your name?" Clay asked him. The ghoul shrugged as he began to examine Rosh's arm.

"Why do you need to know?" he said as he positioned his pliers beside the bullet wound. Rosh pulled her arm back.

"What are you doing!?"

"The healing is more effective if I take out the bullet first, even though it can do it on its own." He turned to Clay, "Get her to bite on something." Clay turned to Rosh.

"Just do what he says."

Rosh nodded back and put the hood of her sweater in her mouth. Clay cringed as the Ghoul pulled the bullet from Rosh's arm and she whimpered through the impromptu gag. He stabbed the stimpack into her arm then and she made a relieved sound, allowing the hood to fall from her mouth, clumped and damp. Clay looked back at the Ghoul once again.

"Your name?" he asked again. The Ghoul sighed.

"Well, if we're going to be traveling together then I-!"

"What are you talking about?" Clay asked. The ghoul smiled, or made what appeared to resemble a smile.

"You two owe me, and I can't stay here now that it looks like a whole army is marching from up north." He picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder, grabbing his gun from the ground and throwing that across his back. "I've been alive since before the war, I'll be useful to you I'm sure." He said. Clay sighed and pointed to Rosh as she began to rise to her feet.

"This is Rosh, and I'm Clay."

"Name's Galen, now go grab their guns so we can hit the road." The Ghoul said before letting loose another coughing fit.

"How much longer until we reach town?" Martin asked. Mathew scratched the top of his head covered in greasy hair.

"Ten minutes or more I'd say." Matt replied. Then, over the horizon, they could see it. Everyone's hearts pounded with anticipation as they drove closer and closer to the settlement. And then they saw smoke. When they were close enough, they could see bodies like bloodied specks on the horizon. Matt simply stopped the vehicle and hit the dashboard with his hand out of anger.

"Goddammit!" he said. "Not again!" Martin got on his scope and after a few seconds he sighed.

"It doesn't look like legion… maybe raiders- Wait!" he stopped and then focused back into his scope. Everyone was dead silent.

"What do you see?" Joseph asked.

"Raiders… I definitely see raiders." Martin put his rifle back down and rubbed his head. "What are we gonna do?" before anyone could answer, Jaden had already exited the vehicle with her weapons at the ready.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna go kill me some raiders."

Joseph had nearly forgotten about her personal vendetta. Jaden made toward the city with anger prevalent in every part of her being, even the way she walked appeared irate.

"Wait! Jaden!" Joseph called as he ran after her, after grabbing his rifle and axe. He put his axe through part of his pistol's hilt and followed her toward the city.

"Shit…" Matt sighed. He stepped out of the car and turned back as he tightened his helmet around his head. "Emile, you're coming with us. Martin, when we're close enough to the town throw the SUV into drive – with the lights off – and move close enough to where you can get a clear shot on some of the raiders, if any. Gwen…" he looked at the woman and stopped as he thought about what would be best for her and them, "You stay with Marty. Use Joe's hunting rifle if you have to." The steel covered man grabbed his laser rifle and marched toward the two others with Emile following close behind.

Matt and Emile caught up with the two love-birds easily as Joseph was trying to dissuade Jaden from running straight into the city, waving her rifle. Joseph grabbed her shoulder but she slapped his hand away and kept walking.

"Think about this. At least don't charge in like a mad-woman!" that stopped her dead in her tracks. Mathew stopped behind her and Emile nearly bumped into the tall metal man.

"Fine." Jaden said as she turned toward the field of long grass beside them, "We'll play it safe." She walked over to the edge of the freeway and jumped into the tall grass, lying down to hide her presence from the raiders. She continued toward the city by crawling on her elbows in a prone position. Joseph moaned annoyingly.

"Okay, let's go." He too jumped into the grass and got up beside her, brushing his way through the long yellow grass and beyond the muck and dirt. Matt and Emile saw no other choice but to join them. The two boys jumped into the grass on the other side of the freeway and themselves crawled toward the city, the shadows of the field masking their beings. Joseph and Jaden were alone on their side of the freeway, so the always sexually promiscuous Jaden struck up an equally saucy conversation.

"How did you like my performance last night, hm?" Jaden asked. Joseph made an awkward laugh and tried to keep up with the girl as she crawled at a near frantic pace.

"It was… uh, fun." He said. She smiled craftily.

"You're not the biggest guy, that's for sure, but I'll make it work." She made a soft laugh as she stifled herself with her hand at her mouth, "I was amazed at how generously you finished last night. Can't wait till somebody finds the stain."

Just when Joseph thought he couldn't get his cheeks to blush any more intensely, Jaden had made it so.

"Will you shut up!" he whispered, "I don't want the whole world to hear." Jaden laughed again.

"Okay, just keep moving up. Raider's on the menu tonight." She said jokingly. Joseph just hoped that they would survive long enough to actually eat tonight.

"It's been nine hours…" Rosh commented looking down at her wristwatch, "How much longer will we be walking for?" the three wanderers trekked down the highway south of Grunthal as the sun disappeared behind the horizon of the west. Galen turned his creaky neck toward her and sighed.

"We should be coming up to the border crossing soon; we can rest there for the night if we need to." He said as he pointed with his leathery fingers at a few buildings surrounded by a thick forest of leafless trees their bark black as tar. They approached the building and breathed respite as the ancient customs office was revealed to be completely abandoned. Galen creaked open the door and took a light step inside. He turned in each direction with his rifle held forward, ready to fire if the need arose. It did not, and the office was now known to be truly vacant.

Galen set his bag down in front of one of the many desks and sat down on it, breathing heavily as if tired.

"You alright?" Clay asked the fatigued ghoul. Galen looked up at him and sighed, shaking his head.

"I can walk for a while… but my muscles are old and decayed, I need to rest eventually right."

"Hey," Rosh said suddenly, "Why don't you tell us what it was like before the war? Or maybe how you survived?" she sat down in front of the Ghoulified man and crossed her legs, waiting for his stories to begin. Galen didn't even have time to argue and she was already lingering in front of him expectedly. He groaned to himself and then motioned to Clay.

"You might as well take a load off too." He said. Clay did as the ghoul had suggested and pulled up a chair from one of the old desks with a broken leg. He sat with the chair turned around so he could rest his arms on the back of the seat.

"I don't remember the day that I was born, maybe some time in November or October, who knows? It's been too long. But the year was 2050. I was twenty-seven when the bombs fell, and I remember it like it happened just this morning – so vivid…" his voice seemed to trail off and he became silent for a moment, "The lucky bastards in their vaults had entered just a day before they launched the bombs, as if the government had planned it. People say that China's threats had pushed the American government to the edge, but I say that it was planned from the beginning." He paused again.

"How did you survive?" Rosh asked.

"I was in my basement in Toronto when I heard the first explosion. I poked my head up to look through the basement window and saw the blinding light. I would have been actually blinded if I didn't close my eyes before the shockwave hit; the glass shattered and tore at my face – I may even have shards of it in my skin still." He felt at his face gently and watched his hand slide down his cheek, "I was knocked unconscious and when I woke up… well, I looked like a fucking corpse."

"What about your life before all that?" Rosh continued with her intruding questions.

"Not much to say. I had a girlfriend who I assume was vaporized because when I climbed up out of my basement the wall had been completely torn off on one side and all of the furniture was but ashes on the floor. I was a strict Catholic before… this." He motioned to his decomposed and leathery face. "After the war, I wasn't sure what to think of God."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"I wondered if it was punishment for my sins, or maybe he let me live because of a bigger plan he had for me. After years of surviving and doing nothing else but living like a walking carcass, I had nearly forgotten what the word "God" meant to me…" he began scrawling something in the dirt on the floor below with the barrel of his gun as the utensil. "I'm not sure what to believe anymore."

"I never was a believer." Clay added in randomly.

"Bullshit," Galen interrupted before Clay could even explain himself, "Complete bullshit."

"You don't know me; you don't know what I believe." Clay defended his opinion. Galen scoffed at him and made a whistling noise as he giggled hoarsely to himself.

"No one has ever been without religion their whole life."

"Well I have!" Clay seemed to be getting hostile.

"You're telling me that you've never wondered what life was about, or why we're here?" he shot a finger at Clay, "You've never begged or appealed to a higher power, whether you knew it was there or not?"

"Well, I guess I've-!"

"You're telling me that when you were being shot at in that corner store by those lunatics that you weren't silently praying that a guardian angel would descend from above and take you by the hand and save you!? As a child, you never wondered if there were mystical beings beyond the stars that watched your every move!? That no part of you has ever desired for a divine essence to exis-!" he stopped when he was hit by a coughing fit out of nowhere. Galen's lunges were obviously not in the best condition. Rosh looked worried.

"Do you need-!"

"I'm fine!" he said before continuing his fit. Just like the stereotypical elderly man, he was as stubborn as a mule. "Everyone believes in something whether they truly think so or not, or we would have no reason for living." He rapped on his head with his knuckles, "The subconscious thoughts deep in our noggins… our desire to transcend, to discover or to believe. Those thoughts keep us going every day, but no one ever realizes it."

"Then how did you realize it?" Clay said skeptically. Galen smiled again.

"Age has wizened me, and so too has it opened my eyes to things I thought invisible."

"Okay, I'm gonna throw the car into neutral and we can push it, because I don't trust myself with… these?" Martin pointed to the pedal and brake on the floor of the SUV. Gwen laughed a bit and pointed at them herself.

"These, are called pedals darling, but I don't trust them either so screw it. I've never driven in my life." She stepped out of the vehicle as he did and put the scope of Joseph's rifle to her eye. Martin seized the SUV under his control and put it into neutral. The wind blew past him and almost took his hat with it.

"Well," he said as he went around to the back of the vehicle, "Are you gonna help?" he shrugged at Gwen. Gwen sighed and threw the rifle back into the SUV.

"Fine." She went around standing beside him and then on the count of three they pushed with all their might. The vehicle was surprisingly easier to move than they had thought, but it was still moving at a snail's pace. Gwen grunted as they pushed the hunk of metal closer and closer to the town, not a sound being made other than the soft sound of the rubber treading over the pebbles and the cracked highway.

"You sure you don't want to drive?" Gwen said as she continued grumbling.

"I'm sure. Besides," he took another breath and continued pushing, "it would make too much noise."

After another minute of pushing with their full strength, Martin felt the breeze becoming stronger and stronger, until he had to hold onto his hat and push on the SUV with his back. When he turned around and began pushing his mouth gaped open as he saw the source of the gale. A formation of tall, gray clouds larger than any he had ever seen in his life swelled behind them and skulked closer to them with every second that passed. Martin tapped on Gwen's shoulder just as snow began to fall around them. She turned and instantly let go of the vehicle, instead diving inside the passenger-side door and shutting the door behind her.

"Get in!" she hollered from inside. Martin held his fedora down on his head as he ripped open the driver-side door and leaped into the seat, slamming the SUV door.

"Have you never been outside the vault during winter?" Gwen asked. Martin shook his head.

"No, no I had never left the vault until I was fifteen, and even then I never went out in the winter."

"Well, shit!" she reached into the back and pulled out all of the blankets she could, "Ever since the bombs fell, the weather hasn't been itself. We won't be getting normal weather up here for a few hundred more years I imagine." She passed three blankets over to him, "We have to stay warm or we're dead."

"But… But how can the weather change so suddenly!? And just how cold is it gonna get!?" Martin was frantic; this was all new to him. Sudden snow storms the size of hurricanes out of nowhere did not seem at all possible. Then again, radiation seemed to make a lot of things possible.

Gwen shot him a worried look.

"Ever heard of Antarctica?" she asked.

"Yeah." He replied.

"Yeah… almost that cold."

"It's kinda getting chilly out…" Jaden commented as her warm breath cut though the blades of grass as she lied down in the field with Joseph close beside her. It would be nearly pitch black if not for the fires roaring in the settlement, the same fires that were flickering violently in the wind as the storm began to pick up speed. Joseph turned around and saw the clouds behind them – he was amazed at their size. Lightning began to flash in the distance and thunder crashed down into the nearby fields. Crystalline flakes of silvery ice fell from the sky, small but by the thousands, hundred thousands. They did not fall gently because the wind would not allow it. The gusts grabbed the snowflakes and hurled them eastward, pelting the wanderers and nearby raiders all the same. The grass around them was fixed to the east as well, nearly revealing the sneaks as they crawled through the stirring blades of grass being blown east.

"Shit…" Jaden whispered.

"Where in the hell did that come from?" asked Joseph right in her face. The wind was too loud to allow her to hear his voice otherwise.

"This is winter in the wastes, Babe. Get used to it." She took her hood and covered her head as she continued forward with her face low to the ground. Joseph didn't understand; it was only, what, September? Early October, maybe? Yet here she was speaking about the hellish winters, and with proof to back up her warnings.

They were very close to the ransacked settlement now, and the raiders were none the wiser of their arrival thanks to the cover of the storm. Without warning Jaden beforehand, Joseph waited on the thunder and then bolted out of the prairie grass, taking cover from the vision of the raiders behind the wall of a house. The settlement had a large rickety gate that had obviously been made post-war, and the villagers' corpses were strewn along its numerous ropes and coils of barbed-wire. Women and children were not spared.

Joseph peered slowly around the corner of the wall to spot the raiders that had done the deed. Obviously high on "Psycho" one of the three present raiders – gathered around a campfire – punctured his arm with a large needle and began to shudder as he injected the intoxicating substance into himself. Thunder roared again, and suddenly Jaden was on the wall across from him, on the other side of the raiders with her rifle drawn, a full ten feet away maybe. A human triangle of death. Mathew and Emile had moved up too, and they motioned with their hands. The adrenaline from Joseph's initial dash to the wall had now worn off, and he could feel the bitter cold again.

The air was getting thinner and thinner, so they would have to act fast. He put his black hood up and zipped up his coat most of the way, only revealing his chest-holster. He felt down at his belt to find the fire axe; a few clumps of dirt had gotten caught on its blade when they were crawling on the ground, but it was still there. He checked the magazine in his rifle as the raiders continued laughing and cooking meat over their impromptu metal-barrel fire-pit. Full mag. He placed the magazine back in its home and flicked the safety off on the G36. He could see Jaden's teeth chattering as the winds began to pick up even more speed. She nodded. Joseph took one quick look at his life-form sensing compass. Ten living things, all of them supposed hostile. He nodded now too. The couple looked over to see the two other boys giving them the thumbs up. Jaden gave Joseph the same gesture. It was his call.

Without another word he pressed his rifle's butt firmly against his shoulder and breathed. On the exhale, he quickly turned the corner and made his marks. One. Two. Three shots left the barrel of his gun. Two hit the highest of the three junkies, both in the back. He fell forward, now dead, into the fire pit startling his friends. The third bit of hot lead penetrated the right one's shoulder, making him stumble back and trip over the log that he had been sitting on. Jaden flew around the corner with her hair caught in the wind and not completely in her hood. She shot her rifle twice, hitting the formerly unharmed raider in the chest with both. She then jumped over the log and then drew her 10mm pistol that Joseph had given her. She aimed at the man that Joseph had hit in the shoulder.

"Say goodnight, asshole." She said as she pumped the wounded man with four shots from her pistol; obviously a waste, but a good way to vent her stress without danger to her companions. More thunder roared from behind and Joseph could hear the sounds of both an AK-47 and an AER9 Laser-Rifle nearby.

Joseph ran haphazardly around the next bend and out into the street where five more raiders were firing away at his friends. None of them were facing him. The two men being fired at leaned their rifles over a concrete block and fired aimlessly into the crowd. One bullet from the AK made contact with a raider`s neck, ripping apart his jugular vein. Joseph ducked behind another block of concrete to stop from meeting his end via friendly-fire. He leaned out the side of the block as Jaden came up from behind him. He pressed the VATS mode button on his Pip-Boy and instantly shot two of the raider`s in the head. As they slumped lifeless to the ground, their allies turned in horror at the gaping holes in their heads and the pool of blood that had gathered there. In their distraction Mathew hit one in the chest with his Laser-rifle, disintegrating his insides. Jaden took the last one with her pistol – shooting him twice in his bare chest. How cold they must have been?

Two more Raiders came tearing down the main street with their weapons spitting hot lead in every direction. They were quickly dispatched by Emile and Mathew, with blood and ashes everywhere. The wind was picking up and Joseph could even hear the chattering of Mathew's teeth through his helmet.

"Everyone inside that building!" he pointed to what appeared to be an abandoned grocery store on Joseph and Jaden's side of the street. "Now!" The group dived through the door as Emile and Mathew worked to barricade it with old dilapidated shelves broken in numerous places. When they were done, they slid down the wall heaving every breath. Mathew removed his helmet and continued rattling his teeth. The inside of the building was not much warmer.

"I guess we're stuck here for the night…" Mathew said as he hung his head down.