Chapter Two

The day was hotter than it usually is, and most of the group Jake was traveling had stripped down most of their clothing. No one really seemed to care about modesty as they marched the empty highway in nothing but their underwear. The kids moved in a spread formation that Dave seemed to call "Beta." Jade stayed ahead of everyone scouting ahead and using a mirror to reflect back Morse code. Dave stood in front of the rest of the group; Rose was behind him, then Jake, then John. It seemed like for days they marched without a single word to one another and kept moving. They'd pass through towns, some over run with Ghouls and some controlled by tribes or factions of people. Some were very hostile and attempted to kill the kids on sight, even threatening to eat them alive once they were done. Some were friendlier, trading supplies and munitions if they had the extra.

"We're almost to the coast," Dave called out without turning to the rest. There was an audible sigh of relief and the pace seemed to pick up a bit. Jake tightened the shirt he had wrapped around his head and smiled. The closer they began to make it to the coast, the more the kids started talking. John asked Jake all about his life and of recent events. Jake answered happily and talked about how he narrowly survived being afloat in an ocean that was mostly dead.

"The waters were as black as onyx," Jake laughed. "I could see my own blasted reflection in the water it was so black."

"Were there any fish?" Rose asked, a curious look on her face.

"If there were any fish, they would have mutated into some sort of horror-terrors," John laughed.

Jake explained the Ghouls to the best of his knowledge. How even though they appeared undead, they were actually still living. The radiation had mutated them in ways that warped their minds into that of a feral beast.

"They're not zombies?" John had asked. A look of disappointment took about his face.

"No. They're still alive. Just mutated into those beasts," Jake replied as they walked.

Suddenly, Dave came to a full stop causing Rose to walk straight into him.

"Look." He pointed. Jade's mirror was flashing frantically in the distance. "H." Dave said, "E. L. P. Help. Guys we need to move. Now!" Dave shouted and then took off down the road. The others followed without any hesitation and after a second Jake followed as well. Before they were even halfway down the road, they spotted a gas station on the right side. Gun shots popped in the distance and Dave ran harder.

It took several minutes to catch up to Jade and the situation they happened upon was bad. Several destroyed cars littered the road, providing cover to some tribe members who were firing into the gas station with large automatic weapons. Jade was pinned inside, her bolt action rifle unable to keep up with the amount of fire the tribesmen were putting down.

"Fuck mother." Dave cursed and pulled his sword from its sheath with a loud "schwing." He pounded down the road and let out a loud roar that elicited attention from all of the tribesmen, who turned their guns and faced Dave.

"God damn it, Strider!" Jake shouted and un-holstered his firearm. He held an arm out in front of him parallel to his chest and rested his other arm on it. Jake lowered himself into a crouch and took a deep breath, adjusted his aim, and fired. The bullet zinged in the air and past Dave's ear. It buried itself in the unprotected chest of a tribesman and knocked him to the ground. Before Jake could fire off a second shot John and Rose took off down the road with their weapons at the ready.

Jake watched as Dave slammed a foot into the rusted body of a car and leapt over it. He twisted the sword mid air and brought the point down through the skull of a tribesmen gunner and used his body to break his fall. Dave pulled the sword from the dead tribesmen and turned to face another who shouldered his rifle and was smiling wickedly. A single bang rang from the gas station and the tribesman's head exploded. Jade always hit her mark. Dave twisted and watched as Rose rammed her two needles into the neck of a gunner and wrenched open his jugular causing blood to spray into the air. She carelessly dropped the body to the side, raised a needle back and threw it into a charging attacker. The weapon lodged itself between the eyes of the tribesmen and left him twitching on the asphalt.

Dave looked to his left and watched proudly as John followed suite and leapt off of one of the cars bringing the head of the bright sledgehammer down into the skull of the last gunner smashing it into a bloody pulp against the frying ground. The group stood panting together as Jake and Jade approached them. Jade quickly hugged everyone and laughed.

"Thank you guys for hurrying. I don't think I would have made it much longer under that hellfire." She laughed, covering her mouth with a hand.

"Its no problem," Dave smirked. "But one question: how did you manage to reflect the mirror like that?"

"There was a hole in the gas station wall," Jade explained sticking a thumb over her shoulder.

The group shrugged and took a silent moment to clean off their weapons. "That was a nice shot you pulled off there, ," Jade complimented with a large smile. "Almost rival to my own sharpshooting."

Jake blushed and smiled sheepishly. "Been around fire arms all my life. My gran taught me how to shoot when I was a small child," he replied.

"Time to go," Dave interrupted yet again as he slammed his blade back into the sheath at his waist. The group nodded and began walking with Dave down the road.

For hours they walked in an unchanging environment. The road was hot and seemed to radiate in waves over the group. Sweat clung to Jake's brow and dripped down to his cheek and eventually off of his body. Jake tried his hardest to keep his mouth shut and avoid whining, but eventually the heat got the best of him and his mouth slipped up.

"How much longer?" Jake huffed.

"Half hour," Dave replied nonchalantly and kept walking.

An hour passed 'till Jake finally spoke up again. "Are we there yet?"

"Half hour," Dave replied again without facing Jake.

"You sure? You said that an hour ago." Jake squinted and wiped away the sweat from his brow.

"Yeah. Half hour," Dave answered.

Jake scoffed and kept walking. The environment remained the same. The road stretched endlessly with a hot, beating desert on either side. Soon the sun began to set and the group stopped on the side of the road. Scraps of wood were pulled from the dirt and a fire was lit. Each kid sat around the fire and stretched out their legs with loud huffs and sighs of relief.

"Oh my aching feet," Jake said aloud and his head rolled back on his shoulder and he looked up at the night sky. "Are we close?" He asked Dave.

Dave looked at Jake with a straight face. "Hey," He said. "Do you want me to turn this car around?"

"What?" Jake looked at Dave confused.

"I swear to god I will turn this car around I don't care how close we are to Disney land," Dave mocked.

Jake's mouth twisted into a scowl. "You're an idiot," He said simply.

"And you're British," Dave smirked and leaned back on his shoulders. He kicked crossed his leg and kicked them side to side.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Jake asked, his voice sounding rather annoyed.

"Actually now that I think about it you're not as up and uh...how do I say it? Overly happy?" Dave said.

"Yeah, surviving a nuclear apocalypse seems to take the cheer out of anyone's party," Jake uttered.

Dave shrugged silently and stared up into the sky. Ever since the bombs were dropped there was a thin haze that covered the sky. It distorted the look of the stars but wasn't thick enough to stop the sun's penetrating heat.

Several minutes of silence passed and Jake soon realized that everyone had fallen asleep. It seemed they silently volunteered him to keep watch over the campsite for a while. Jake stood up slowly and pulled his pistol from its holster. He pulled the slide back with a satisfying click, chambered a round, and began to walk slowly around the campsite. Jake passed himself ten meters away from the kids and patrolled around them in an even circular motion.

For several long, uneventful hours Jake walked around the campsite, only stopping for short breaks. It was almost four in the morning when the sound of footsteps in the dirt snapped Jake to attention. He sat up quickly from one of his breaks and whirled around. Aiming his gun into the darkness Jake let out a harsh whisper.

"Who's there?"

"Your god fuckface," a harsher, angrier voice whispered back.

Jake felt cold steel wrap around his neck and he tensed up. He cursed silently to himself and slowly lifted up his arms. Jake let his pistol fall to the ground with a loud clatter and huffed.

"You caught me, you jabbering fuck." Jake growled.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" the voice behind Jake sneered into his ear.

"Resting," Jake stated. "That's all."

"For some reason I don't well fucking believe you. You're coming with me, and so help me God if you even so much as kick a pebble to your friends I will slit your throat wide fucking open," the harsh whisper threatened.

"Oh?" Jake smirked in the darkness. In half a second he slammed the back of his head into the person behind him. Feeling where his captor was, Jake smashed his boot backward into what he had hoped was its knee. Jake tensed as he felt his boot collide with the shin of his captor; however, it produced the result he was hoping for. His captor stumbled forward and Jake quickly grabbed their wrist and yanked forward, tucked his chest down, and flipped the attacker over him, then slammed them into the hard ground with a loud thud.

"What the fuck...," the voice wheezed painfully.

Jake kicked his captor's weapon away from him and stood over the figure. He dropped a knee hard into their chest and pressed the pistol into the flesh of their neck.

"Slick plan. It's a shame it's stopped working," Jake murmured into the figure's ear. He quickly sat up and turned to where the group was sleeping.

"We got an intruder!" He shouted. Almost instantaneously Dave jumped up with his blade drawn.

"Where!" He shouted and looked around frantically.

"Must be hard to see at night in those shades huh?" Jake yelled to Dave. "Over here! He's already pacified."

Dave relaxed slightly and grabbed one of the glowing sticks out of the fire. He strolled over to Jake and held the stick over the two, casting a soft glow on them.

"What the fuck." Dave cursed.

Jake looked from Dave down to his prisoner in wonder. The captive had messy black hair with two nubby, candy corn colored horns poking out. He had gray skin and black lips, his eyes were orange with black pupils. His clothing was brand new however. He wore a black turtle neck sweater despite the heat. On the chest of the sweater painted in a light gray was the zodiac sign of Cancer.

"Oh stop gawking at me its not like you're any prettier," the captive spat at Dave.

"What's your name?" Jake demanded. He pulled the hammer back on his pistol and pressed it into the captive's skin.

"My name is Karkat. Karkat fucking Vantas," Karkat growled.

Jake looked at Karkat slightly confused then turned to Dave.

"He turned that information over easily," Dave shrugged.

"Are you part of a tribe? Pardon my questioning but what's with the get up?" Rose asked, her voice stretching into a yawn.

"When did you get here?" Jake questioned. "I didn't even hear you approach."

"Is he a Ghoul?" John asked as he plopped down next to Karkat and Jake.

"No you dimwitted fuck. I'm a troll. A mutant," Karkat barked.

"You don't look any younger than us. What happened?" Jaked asked.

"When the bombs initially hit the radiation did some thing that fucked with our DNA for fuck all. This is the result," Karkat said sarcastically. "Now. Im done indulging you, I need to return to my group. Let me go you pink fucking wigglers."

Dave laughed for a moment and looked down at Karkat. He took his sheathed sword and poked Karkat in the middle of his forehead. "Sorry buddy. You're not going anywhere. John, go get something we can tie this, 'Troll' up with." Dave ordered. John nodded sleepily and stood up. He marched off to the campsite and returned several minutes later with a small length of frayed rope.

"This is all we have," John mumbled sleepily and rubbed one of his eyes. Dave took the rope from John and knelt down beside Jake and Karkat. He grabbed Karkat by the wrists and tied them together tightly without resistance.

"Smart move, Troll boy," Dave sighed. "Jake, get him up and drag his sorry ass back to camp. I'm going back to bed."

Jake nodded slowly and sat up off of Karkat and grabbed him by the collar. With a quick yank he pulled Karkat up off of the ground and unto his feet. Jake pushed Karkat ahead of him and pointed his pistol at his back.

"Walk," Jake said simply.

Karkat nodded silently and marched to the campsite. He plopped down between Jake and Dave and laid on the ground.

"No use in trying to escape or argue with you knob-gobblers," Karkat sighed. "There's no hope of me getting out of here huh?"