Only seconds ago the junkyard home was actually peaceful. Quiet, sun setting, and fire crackling from outside the makeshift home.
Suddenly a roar of gunfire and ricocheting bullets conquered the airwaves.
"What the hell?" Yomi shrieked. "Get on the floor!"
Without a moment of pause to fully awaken, everyone hugged the floor of the once safe bus.
A particularly close shot sounded as a pane of glass on the side of the bus shattered and rained everyone in a cloud of broken glass.
Refusing to sit still and wait to be shot Sakaki sprang into action and kicked open a door to the presumably safe exterior.
Without a word she scrabbled through the exit and motioned the others to follow.
As more and more bullets reduced the hulk to indistinguishable junk, the senses of the new-found soldiers were completely overwhelmed leaving nothing, but angry shudders and curses to leave the their mouths.
Once again luck was on the side of the girls as under a veil of darkness the escaped the deathtrap.
"What... the hell was that?" Tomo said struggling for a breath.
"Looks like bandits." Chiyo said squinting at the men who had just tried to kill them.
A bullet hit the toll gate they hid behind in a high pitched scream.
"I don't think they notice us yet." Osaka deduced as no further gun fire followed the original impact.
"Shit! I didn't grab my pack!" Kagura exclaimed. "We gotta go back, I had all the food!"
"What?!" Chiyo yelled.
"Crap I left my gun in there too!" Tomo added.
"Then we have to go back for it." Yomi said.
Sakaki stood an said "I'll go."
"How are you gonna do that?" Osaka asked.
"Don't worry about me." She said before she slipped underneath a rusted shell of a car.
She peered out the opposite end of the car as the black boots of whatever aggressive force attacked the camp.
As the bandits passed she crept out and moved to tractor and hid under the massive tires for only a moment before emerging only a few feet from the bus now riddled with holes and rubble.
She pounced the remaining distance just as some rounded the corner and noticed her entry.
The bandit ran to the door and stomped in.
The two where now in there own world.
Sakaki hid under a bus seat, while the bandit cautiously crept about the bus.
The man noticed a 12. gauge shotgun and a pack of canned meat and ammunition on the floor.
"Well well well what do we have here?" He said.
As he bent over Sakaki saw the opportunity to tackle him, rob him of his AK-47, grab Tomo's shotgun and Kagura's pack and run.
Not bothering with her original stealthy route she simply ran back to the group.
Only feet from her friends her right leg gave out and she tumbled to ground.
"Sakaki!!" The group screamed.
As her friends grabbed the things Sakaki had just dropped, Yomi and Tomo Were now dragging her away from the junkyard.
She felt frozen, yet limp as she was dragged across the road to a clearing behind a few trees.
When she was laid on the ground she looked down and realized why she had fallen.
She had been shot in her right leg.
She looked around and noticed everyone panic and rush for medical supplies.
Yet she heard nothing.
She knew she was in shock as she felt herself become colder and colder.
"Oh god, Osaka wheres the damn antibiotic?!" Kagura yelled.
Chiyo walked over "I found the gauze."
"Good, Osaka! The antibiotic!" Yomi pointed as Osaka walked over.
"Is this it?" Osaka asked with a look of terror.
"No but it'll do." Yomi said, taking the bottle and pouring the contents of it on Sakaki's wound.
Tomo who had been until now keeping Sakaki's leg up yelled "Chiyo wrap her leg now!"
Chiyo nodded and tightly wrapped what the cloth around her thigh.
"Lets get the hell out of here!" Yomi Yelled taking one of Sakaki's arms.
"Go go go!" Tomo screamed taking her other arm.
After a few minutes of aimlessly fleeing the area the finally reached a broken down building.
It looked as though it had been bombed and only one half stood over a monstrous pit in the ground.
A massive concrete slab that once formed a floor of the structure now served as a giant rocky cave that provided excellent refuge.
"Okay... okay... we made it." Tomo said between gasping for air.
"Yeah." Said Kagura. "How's she doin'?"
"She'll be okay I think." Yomi sighed with relief.
Osaka as though she remembered something. "Ah! Yomi, What was in that bottle I handed you?"
She also jumped as she remembered that moment.
"Where'd you get that bottle?" She said sounding very serious.
"Tomo-chan's bag."
"Why did you have vodka in your bag?"
Osaka seemed surprised. "You had vodka?"
Tomo completely shocked, sat up. "Ehh... I can explain"
"Go ahead then" Yomi said sounding a little angry now.
"I thought it would burn well..." Tomo said. "And I wanted to try and make one of those Molotov cocktails that that trader told me about."
Yomi now less angry and more confused asked. "Why did you even want to make one of those?"
"It could be useful!" She said defensively.
Yomi sighed. "Whatever reason you really had that crap, it may have saved Sakaki so I guess I'll stop asking about it."
Chiyo walked over. "It's still dark out. We shouldn't waste this time."
"Chiyo's right." Said Tomo. "We only have a few precious hours of night left and we need to use them to our advantage."
"Absolutely." Kagura said tossing Tomo her shotgun and grabbing the machine gun that Sakaki had liberated from the bandit. "Chiyo set up your radio. Me and Tomo are going to see what's around here."
"Excellent." Tomo said happily.
3 Hours Later
Yomi and Osaka had finally started a fire. Sakaki still passed out from the experience a few hours back. While Chiyo sat near that radio she kept in her pack to stay in touch with the others if they where ever separated.
"Chiyo? Chiyo you still there?" came over the radio in a static voice.
"Ah. Yes I'm here."
"We see something over here." Came Tomo's voice. "It looks like a stalker camp, but it's weird. It's not like all the others. They all have black uniforms and some symbol on their shoulders."
"So they're with the military?"
"No its not some military patch, it's like a red bull's-eye."
"Do they look friendly?" Chiyo asked.
"They might be. They just let some guy in green Kevlar through."
"We may need to go over there tomorrow. Okay just come on back until then."
"Gotcha" Tomo finished.
Morning
That day was a strange one to begin with as the original plan to move at night and sleep all day was abandoned in favor of keeping Sakaki safe.
"How's the stretcher?" Osaka said in the same daze as usual.
"It seems to work." Sakaki said nodding at her.
Before then had fallen asleep that night they managed to make a stretcher out of some pipes and Sakaki's old jacket.
The camp they had seen last night was just down an old road broken by the unusually resilient plant life in the zone.
As they approached the camp, they were stopped by a few stalkers who seemed more like standard military than anything else.
"Stop. What is your business here?" one of the men said, words muffled by his mask.
"We have someone who's hurt we need to come through here." Yomi told the guard.
"We get people in here like that all the time, and we cant just buy every story from someone who just happens to be bleeding."
"Are you kidding me? She's been shot we need to treat the wound with a little more than vodka and gauze." Yomi argued.
"Listen! If you wanna come through here so badly then you'll have to make worth our while."
Tomo stepped up. "Fine then what the hell do you want?"
"We hear that some bandits have a stash filled with weapons not to far from here, and I think we need it more than them."
"So we just get it and we can come through?" Tomo asked.
"That's it." The guard said.
Kagura grabbed the AK-47. "You guys stay here. I'll get the guns."
Yomi walked over. "No Sakaki went to do something alone and she got shot so we're not going to do anything alone anymore.
"Good idea" Kagra handed Yomi her rifle. "Lets go."
"Where are those guns you wanted?"
The guard pointed to a cave in some near-by cliffs. "Follow that cave to the other side from there you'll see a big factory. That is where all those weapons are."
"That's it?" Tomo asked.
The guard nodded. "That's it."
"Then let's go." said Yomi.