Note: It took forever for me to get the inspiration to write the second chapter, but here it is! Enjoy!

The green-haired Tech crafter was done with her glove project, two other projects started after, and half way through making a new bag before they stopped for the night. Sighing, she gently nudged Mara into stopping with her heels, quickly stowing away the new project and dismounting. Orac Veldin, who had already dismounted and did a quick perimeter sweep, was starting to kick up a fire while Paste went in search of a food or water source, leaving Spud to pitch the tents. This was all fine by her since, out of the three of them, the woman was pry the only one who could.

After getting up the sorriest-looking pieces of cover one could ever hope to see, the irradiated woman went fishing for a compass to check if they were on the right track. Her clone collar had recorded the amount of miles they'd traveled, but didn't have a needle magnetically attracted to North. Satisfied with the information she found, the woman spread a map out on a stump nearby, ignoring the fact that it was colder here than in Arizona.

"How far off are we?" asked the no-nonsense Enforcer tending the fires near the woman's stump. "We aren't," came the tired reply. "According to this map, we're 5 miles shy of 'Portland' -- a decent 150 miles or so from our destination, if the calculations are good." Which meant at least a day's travel still, if they didn't want to kill the horses.

"Well, that's not bad," he commented, somber-looking ice blue eyes staring at the fire. "Mean's we're close, at least. I figured we were way off by now; this road's twisty." And not only was it, but the pavement had long ago given up the battle for territory that it had once waged with the local plant life. "Is it colder to you, too?"

Theoretically, they had all known it was possible the temperature up North was vastly different than that down south. But contact with the North had been completely cut off since the war one-hundred and fifty years ago, leaving many in the south to wonder if the rest of the country even existed still. So the three clones, though having been warned, were ill prepared for the night's chill, Paste's lament being a soft reminder to this fact.

He'd come back with two rabbits, the sight of which made Emelia find some paper and a pen. Before he was allowed to skinned them, she examined every inch, making notations as she did.

"There," she said with a cat's satisfied grin. "That's all I needed. I hope your cooking does these specimens justice." A scientist through-and-through, the wiry middle-aged female had taken this assignment for the simple pleasure of scientific discovery -- and notoriety.

Ann was barreling along in her little terrain-ready car, not really paying attention to the surroundings much except to put on a coat as it got cold. She hadn't stopped at all since leaving the LifeNet facility in South Burb, and the sun was starting to set. The goal was to reach them before they started their next trek out, the car being much faster than their horses.

There was a shadow up ahead that looked odd to her, and as the Technician got nearer to it, she realized it was a person. Stranger still, though the person had all the trimmings of traveling a distance, they had no horse. The blond pulled over in front of the man, stopping him from moving further. "Want a lift?" she asked calmly, surveying him. His looks and clothes told her he was a Traveler, and a rather poor one at that.

"Thanks," he muttered almost bitterly, thin accent not quite audible. Grumbling to himself, the man got into the buggy, pulling his hat over his eyes; probably attempting to hide his face.

Seattle lay in an odd disarray of ruins, the forested wilderness having made a strong claim for the buildings. Many of the things that were once thought to be forever now lay broken in the streets. Oddly enough, the hardest hit areas of the city were the more recently developed ones: the paved roads were torn up by the roots of trees that had taken claim over the many skyscrapers while only bits of weeds poked through the cobbled stones of the less traveled roads.

Pike Place Market still stood, however, and was even used, though the land was reclaimed by those who rightfully felt they owned it. One tribe of Native Americans claimed all of the city for themselves, citing their involvement in settling the land. For awhile, that theory held, and even was upheld by the other tribes.

But now the Chinook are at war with the Puyallup Indians, who seem to not be satisfied with claiming the whole of Tacoma. Such is the natural way of things when food is scarce. As scarred and changed as the salmon now are, they still run, and the thickest, richest run is still at the old dam in Seattle for the return trip to spawn.

But few were concerned with that today, as it was no longer spawning season for the remaining fish, and that was usually the only time the Puyallup came gunning for the main port of call. That wasn't to say there weren't people needing treatment, however, as many of the wildlife had mutated into nasty creatures from the Shiva virus, and there was still gang violence despite the times.

This found Poiple, as the young Native liked being called, tending some rather nasty spider bite victims. Like most of the arthropods, the spiders here had grown in extreme proportions, and many of them went from web-sitting to outright hunting for their food. Soon enough the young woman was covered in blood from those who made it out missing limbs. By the looks of the attack, the victims had run into a recluse.

One of the victims brought in was unfortunate before arriving: his flesh had begun to dissolve from the spider's venom well before he was found, so he was only alive for a moment or two after being put on a stretcher. However -- and this the medic would note when her mind was more clear -- the remaining victims, though appearing to have been bitten, did not display symptoms of the famous spider's venom.

Though the Market, itself, was closing with the dusk, the once-restaurant and bar that now served as an infirmary was bustling with activity, and remained so for the rest of the night as Poiple and the other medics worked non-stop to keep the death count low.

And there's chapter 2! Or is it 1, technically? xD