I woke up the next morning, surprisingly awake and refreshed. However, Saphir was nowhere in sight. I lifted my awning cautiously and scanned the skies and ground before opening my encampment fully. I saw Julie already by the bikes, fastening her pack to her back.

"You're finally up. You ready to go?" I shrugged.

"I guess. Where's Saphir?"

"Haven't seen the bastard since he slept with you last night." I held up my hands in surrender.

"Down boy. Nothing happened, I swear. I fell asleep pretty quickly. I think I woke up once, but I can't remember it very well, so I must have just rolled over and went back to sleep." Julie chuckled.

"You sleep like a rock, you know that?" I shrugged again.

"What should we do about Saphir?" I asked, bringing up the inevitable question.

"Well, we should move on. He has our scent by now and he can follow us."

"But what about our marks?" I asked quietly.

"A good sniper can figure it out."

"Not that. I'm sure I can find and kill Sanglant, but it was the other two marks."

"Damn," Julie swore. "You're right. Well, the only thing we can do is go forward. It's going to take a while getting to Raleigh and we need all the time we can get for recon." I nodded in agreement. She gestured to the bikes and we hopped on simultaneously. I began the trek, knowing where I was going.

********************

We stopped for lunch after we finally exited the mountains. Fortunately, we had found a small highway which led us out fairly quickly. And on top of that, we had the endurance of soldiers.

"Pass me the ravioli." I tossed her the can and she opened it with her knife, tossing the top to the side. I was eating Spaghetti O's. I know, not healthy for you, but with all the exercise we got, we could get away with the carbs and such.

"You seen him?" I asked through my food.

"Nah. I've been looking for him or for any tracks, but that's impossible at our speed and he's pretty good in the wilderness, or so I figure. He'll show up eventually. What made him leave in the first place? Did you do something?"

"Again, I don't remember. I don't remember anything in my sleep."

"Hah, you pissed him off."

"And you did too. Which reminds me, if you piss him off while he's got a hold of me, so help me god, I WILL kill you."

"Fair enough," Julie conceded. "I just wanted him off of you."

"I know." I sighed. "Which is why I haven't killed you yet. But seriously, stop antagonizing the dragon."

"No can do," she said, eating her last ravioli. I groaned. "But ignoring this trivial conversation, what are we going to do now? We lived in the mountains so long I forgot how to operate out here. And Raleigh is nothing but demolished buildings and flat ground. Plus, with so many dragons, they'll smell the scent of the gunpowder right away."

"I know. It's a suicide mission. But we can't tell that to Saphir. We have to remain valuable to him." I brought out my trusty maps. "However, that's not the bad part. We have to cross the freaking state to get to Raleigh. There's not much forest in between us and it. There's a lot of house complexes along the way and many of the towns are on surveillance. That means no big stores along the way. On top of that, we have to ditch our packs. They're too conspicuous and we can't build shelters to hide ourselves."

"We can keep the packs," Julie said. "And just spend the night in houses."

"That's iffy at best Julie. Most are wired with security systems. If they even go off once, we're dead on arrival. Plus, there's not many houses between here and there."

"That means no fancy houses. We go for the shabbier ones, the ones still standing, at least. And we can check the power lines. If they aren't on, the town isn't wired."

"That could be a trap, though."

"We'll hope the dragons aren't that smart yet. Come on." I sighed and finished the last part of my Spaghetti O's and threw the can aside. "Where to next?" she asked. I pointed to a back road.

"Here. We follow this. There's a forest here and we can go through there. It's the safest but it'll take a while to go through. I'll have to use my machete for the briars."

"Then no. We'll have to do this quickly. Next way."

"We can ride the highways. It's the quickest but also the most dangerous."

"Any other way?"

"We can ride the back roads. There's not as much chance that they'll be patrolling them and we can actually ride. However, some lead out of the way and will take more time than the highways, but it won't take as long as the forest route."

"I think we have a winner. I vote for the back roads."

"Fine by me."

"How far do we need to go by nightfall?"

"You don't wanna know." We mounted our bikes and Julie laughed.

"I love a challenge."

"I'm sure you do. Start pedaling." I began to pedal, but my bike suddenly stopped, throwing my chest straight into the handle bars. "Son of a bitch, you stupid piece of-"

"Jessie," Julie said sharply. I stopped the swearing and turned around. I was met with a very angry Saphir. I laughed nervously.

"I meant the bike…" I said weakly. He didn't change his expression.

"Where were you two going?" he asked. I pointed left.

"That way?"

"That's away from Raleigh."

"Actually, we were going to-"

"Enough! Don't lie to me, dragon killer."

"She's not lying," Julie cut in. "We're taking the back roads. It's not as conspicuous as the highway or slow as the forest route. Plus we can keep most of our weapons this way." He stared at me a moment longer before releasing my bike and I sighed in relief. Julie to the rescue. She began to pedal away from him and I pedaled beside of her. Saphir was running to Julie's right. "So where were you?" Julie asked.

"None of your business. Why did you leave me?"

"You gave us a job to do and we're doing it." He laughed derisively.

"I'm sure you were."

"You just don't understand snipers, do you?" Julie said in the same tone as Saphir. "When given a job, we don't rest until it's done. We're the heart of the military, you arrogant dragon, and that's why we were employed in every war since the Revolutionary War." I looked at her surprised. She'd actually listened to one of my lectures?

"Oh?" Saphir asked condescendingly.

"He just doesn't know, Julie," I said, placating her. She turned away from Saphir. "And why are you so angry?"

"I wouldn't ask if I were you, dragon killer." I rolled my eyes. It was times like this when the nickname got annoying.

"Fine. Now before you run off again, what are the other two marks? What are their names?"

"Rowena and Genis."

"Rowena? A girl dragon?" Julie asked. I simply shook my head at her ignorance.

"Yes," Saphir snarled. Before he could get started, I stepped in.

"Just because she's a girl dragon doesn't make her any less of a threat. Females are notoriously protective of their family and young, which probably is increased in a clan setting. If I had to guess, she's a high ranked dragon…probably the mate of Sanglant." Saphir nodded curtly, keeping pace with us. "And Genis is his right hand…er…dragon?" Again, Saphir nodded.

"So we have to kill the right hand dragons. How the hell do we get away? Our gunpowder will be all over us." I grinned at Julie and she braked instantly. I followed suit and Saphir halted, looking at me impassively. "I know you well enough to recognize you have a sadist side. What are you thinking of?"

"The Rangers." Julie stiffened instantly.

"You mean…"

"Yeah. We call in the Rangers. They're always up for a good fight. Plus, ample distraction and getaway time."

"We couldn't even begin to convince them of this."

"Oh?" I asked, a smirk on my face. Julie leaned away slightly.

"I really don't like this side of you."

"I've got some standing as a sniper and you have some as a soldier," I continued, ignoring her little comment. "Plus, I know Gator."

"You know Gator?" she asked incredulously. "How?"

"Didn't you always wonder what I did at night?"

"Ewww!!!! That's so wrong!" she began to claw out her eyes and I laughed.

"Not like that, you pervert. I was his protégé. He knows me fairly well and I know some of his men as well. It's been a long time, but I'm sure he remembers."

"So we ask them…"

"Yes."

"After our recon?"

"They can even help us recon. They'll have information we don't and can tell us more about our marks." We ignored the look Saphir gave us. "What do you think?"

"I think it's brilliant but where would we find said organization?" I drew a small box from my pouch and opened it, revealing a small device. I drew my knife and pricked my hand. As the blood welled, I pressed it in a depression in the device. It beeped once, then emitted a hologram. It showed the Earth for a moment before beeping again. It zoomed into North America, then to North Carolina. I pumped my fist at our luck. It zoomed in again to show the west side of the state. It zoomed in again and again until it hit a county. With a final zoom it showed a dense forest before flicking itself off. I put it back and then pulled out the maps.

"Hah. Five miles, Julie."

"Are you serious?"

"I'm dead serious. Look! We follow this road until he hit exit 27. Then we take Perry Road and then we branch off of the bikes and hike for one mile. We'll hit them then. Now, ground rules. One," I looked at Saphir. "This stays between us. You so much as even try to annihilate them-"

"I won't." I was taken aback at his sudden agreement. "They helped my clan in a war a year ago. I do not forget the debt, even if it's to pathetic humans." Julie quirked an eyebrow but I rounded on her next. "Julie, no killing people, no harming them, no fights, no sex-"

"What?" she cried in desperation.I rolled my eyes.

"One partner only. However, this is a good trading spot. They got a hell of a lot of good weapons. We can trade in for high powered sniper rifles and better scopes."

"But won't these work?"

"I'm planning to be back about 600 to 800 feet."

"But doesn't that cut back accuracy?"

"Yes but I don't feel like getting eaten. You wanna fight a clan of dragons head on?" She shook her head. "Good. Then we'll get the higher rifles. Again, Julie, no drinking, no drugs, no wild parties, no stripping-"

"That was only once!"

"No stripping." She rolled her eyes. "And just to include everything else, no stupidity." She glared but I ignored her. "Now, I believe it's a good time to get going. The sun's going to set soon and the dragons will be roaming tonight." Julie and I locked eyes for a moment. We both sensed a upcoming fight. We then started pedaling furiously to reach the Rangers before nightfall.