For the remainder of that evening and night the two strangers didn't say another word to each other. That was mostly on Bonnie's part as she had been aloof towards him and had given him the cold shoulder for the rest of that night. She had eaten what she collected for her dinner in mostly silence, while at the same time still making sure she kept up her guard around him.

Damon was aware of the fact in which one had to be careful around other people, especially people that a person just met or didn't know. And that one had to proceed with caution in who to trust in this world. Still he was a little more open to talking to new people, where as Bonnie didn't seem open to the idea at all. As he studied her throughout that night, he found himself taken aback by how hardened and ruthless her demeanor appeared to be. At least on the outside, but he had just met her and he guessed with the way that she had found him rampaging through her food, that he couldn't blame her if she was off with him. And was well aware of how this world shaped her into the cold person she seemed to be. But, he hoped he would make some leeway with her and knew that he had to if the two of them were really going to work as a team.

When bedtime came, she slept on the only piece of furniture left in, large enough for a person to sleep on and it was a couch. She ordered him to sleep on the floor in another room, as she still didn't one hundred percent trust him, and wouldn't have someone that she didn't completely trust sleep in the same room that she did. So, he did as she ordered him to do and took the floor to sleep. Since he knew he was on a thin line with her.

The floor wasn't the most comfortable place to catch sleep, however for Damon it was a better option than sleeping outside which he had to do over the last handful of days. Despite the floor not being the most comfortable, he did manage to get a decent amount of sleep. And woke up at first daylight to hear someone moving around in the next room.

He stretched out a bite before getting up and following the sound into the next room, where he discovered that Bonnie was already up, it seemed she had been up before he had, at the very first sign of the early morning daylight, like she hinted that she would be.

"Morning." Damon greeted.

She ignored his greeting with a roll of her eyes and kept her attention on what she was doing.

"What are you up to?" Damon asked.

"What does it look like." Bonnie replied.

"Not sure, that's why I asked." Damon arched a brow.

Bonnie spared him a sideways glance. "You want me to go on this cross country trip with you, correct."

Damon rubbed at his slightly sniff neck. "Correct, the offer still stands unless you changed your mind and want me to go without you."

Bonnie added. "I haven't changed my mind. Don't you think that a big, long trip as this requires discussion of strategy, Damien."

"It's Damon." He corrected her.

"Damon." Bonnie paused "...I'm trying to think up of a plan, we can't just leave here without one you know, we need to discuss and then make our preparations to leave."

"Bonnie, isn't it." Damon inquired of her name.

She nodded her head to confirm her name.

"I agree with you that we should go over a plan and strategy with each other before we leave." Damon said.

"Alright then." Bonnie was about to turn back to what she was doing.

"Umm, wait a second." Damon pointed his index finger in the air.

"Wait for what?" She arched her brow.

He licked his lips. "Mind if we have a little breakfast while we discuss matters."

She let out a humorless laugh. "Are you serious."

Damon was perplexed. "Why would I be?"

"You're asking me for my food, after what you pulled yesterday." Bonnie shook her head.

"At least I asked for it this time and didn't try to steal it, that's already making progress, right." Damon tried with a chuckle.

She only responded by scowling at him.

"Too soon." Damon deadpanned. "Okay, how about I'm requesting breakfast from you, because the both of us are going to need the energy for when we leave for our long trip and the food will give the energy to us. Besides if you haven't notice, I actually didn't eat anymore of your food since you got here."

Bonnie thought back to the day before and he did have a point. Once she had arrived, Damon hadn't had any food after she had confronted him with her gun. Maybe because he didn't think that it was smart to test her considering how pissed she was. But, she knew that he very likely was still hungry since he hadn't eaten in days and because of her interrupting him feeding himself.

And over eight hours had passed by since she had first confronted him in her house, so she stated. "Fine, we can discuss the matter over breakfast."

Damon pumped his fists. "Yes, Thank you."

Bonnie didn't bother welcome him, instead she just went and grabbed a few items of the food she had stored and a couple of water bottles. She handed Damon a couple of granola bars and a water bottle, keeping a water bottle for herself, along with the rest of the food that she had grabbed

"All I get is two granola bars?" Damon feigned disappointed.

"My food, my rules. Until you can replace all that you stole and I give to you. You won't get to take any of my food without my permission." Bonnie countered.

"Hey, relax. I promise you I'll replace your food and then some. WIth my experienced background, I will know the exact places where we can go for food and other sources as we make our way to Virginia." Damon said.

Bonnie gestured. "We will see about that, so let's get on with this discussion, shall we."

Damon returned with a bit of snark. "We shall."

The two of the had their discussion over breakfast. With Damon eating the two granola bars, while ate some dried cranberries and raisins, a couple of slices of stale bread, and a granola bar of her own to go along with the water that she had.

The two of the exchanged some of the knowledge of what they learned from their survival skills and used that to plan out what they should do and were going to do. At least how they should start out and they exchanged ideas back and forth and by the hour had come up with somewhat of an agreement.

"Now that we have discussed the matter, where do we go next?" Bonnie wondered.

"Well, we should leave soon don't you think." Damon mentioned.

"How soon?" Bonnie needed to know.

Damon shrugged. "Why not today."

Bonnie caught on. "You think that we should leave today."

Damon hinted. "I mean it's going to be a very long trip, and the sooner we get there the better, The weather is still nice and warm across most of the country, so it's better if we leave now, over waiting. Since it will take us months to get there in the least."

She knew what he meant. It was about late spring in America, which indeed mean that the weather was nice and warm across most parts of the country, And since it was going to take months for them to travel to where they needed to go, those months would go into summer and so on. It would be best for them if they could make it to their destination before the brunt of winter hit.

"I guess if we are going to leave today, then we better make preparations by packing then." Bonnie muttered.

"Cool, then what do we start with first." Damon murmured.

"Weapons, we're going to need those for a variety of reasons, especially if we come across the wrong people." Bonnie pointed out.

"Weapons, I strongly agree on that one, especially to defend ourselves with, I have mine what about you are you good on guns?" Damon questioned.

She moved around and grabbed an large empty backpack to put things in. "I have more than enough of guns and weapons."

He returned. "I have enough to hold me down, my knife, a fully loaded rifle, with some extra bullets and a revolver."

"A revolver." She narrowed her eyes. "You had another gun on you this whole time, besides the rifle?"

"Yes, my revolver has been in my back pocket this whole time." Damon confirmed.

"It was in reach and you could have pulled it out yesterday when I had my pistol on you." Bonnie realized.

Damon winked. "As I said I have no desire to hurt you, so I didn't feel the need to pull out my revolver against you."

Bonnie pursed her lips. "Is that all."

He admitted. "Perhaps not the only reason, I didn't wish to test your trigger finger by making a sudden moment, risking you putting a bullet my head."

She smirked slightly. "Then you are smarter than you look."

He lifted a hand. "I choose to take that as a compliment."

"Sure." Bonnie turned back to the task of collecting her weapons. She put her holster's on, then strapped her knife back to the thigh, and put the ammo she had for her pistols, into her backpack. She then put her two pistols into each holster, like she has wore them the day before.

As she did this, Damon checked on his own guns of the rifle and that revolver he had spoke of.

Bonnie then moved around the room and opened up a tiny closet, where she had a bow and arrow stored. She got out the bow and arrow, and then the sack which held the arrows and that sack contained about forty arrows inside of it.

Putting his revolver back where it was, he approached closer to get a better look at the bow, impressed by it's size and how good of a shape that it was in. Most of the weapons that he had seen were guns and knives, he didn't see a lot of bow and arrows around before.

"Why do you have a bow and arrow?" Damon wondered.

"Because, I need it." Bonnie leaned the bow against the wall.

"What do you need it for?" Damon was honestly curious.

"I use it to hunt." Bonnie responded.

Damon cocked his head to the side. "Hunt?"

Bonnie massaged her forehead. "You know animals, wildlife for the sake of meat or whatever else the animal can survive."

Damon stated. "Very interesting."

She eyed him. "What's so interesting about hunting?"

"You're a woman." Damon mentioned.

"And?" Bonnie huffed.

"And, I've never seen a woman who hunts before." Damon commented.

"Just what is that suppose to mean?" Bonnie gestured.

"Nothing, really." Damon went on. "It's just from where I came from, if we wanted meat, then the men went out and did all of the hunting for animals."

Bonnie shook her head. "Well, where I come from, I fend for myself, which includes hunting for food. I don't need a man to do that for me."

Damon mumbled. "Which I can see for myself."

"I need to finish packing." Bonnie said more to herself than to him.

She went around and began placing valuable items in her bag, such as soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste, hand sanitizer, and any other important item that she could think of.

Damon watched her and a question came to his mind. "You said you were a businesswoman, what is the business that you run."

She placed a first aid kit into her bag. "I'm a smuggler."

"Really now." This perked Damon's interest in her. "Smuggling what exactly?"

"You really have a lot of questions, don't you." Bonnie returned.

"I'm a very curious man." Damon curved his lips.

"Okay, curious man, I smuggle weapons and similar goods to trade them in for food and other items which I need." Bonnie simply answered.

Damon scratched his beard. "Have you killed in relation to this smuggling job?"

Bonnie said in a it is what it is way. "I do what I need to do."

Damon witted. "I take that as a yes. So, how many people have you killed then."

"Take it as you wish to take it." Bonnie coolly "And I tend not to keep count on who I kill, unless you do on yours as if you're collecting some kind of kill notch on your belt."

"How do you assume that I have killed people." Damon defended.

"A person can't live in this brutal world, and not have killed at least once, it's a killed or be killed world. So, I assume that you have killed in self defense, just like the many times I have had to." Bonnie retorted.

"I prefer not to address that." Damon snarked.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "I figured."

They were silent for a moment as Bonnie packed more items in her backpack, then she proceeded to put some food items into the backpack, she put as much into it as she good, but soon found her backpack full.

He noticed this and offered. "You know, I have my duffle bag, which is mostly empty with the exception of a canteen and some extra bullets for my gun. I have extra space to put some more food and whatever else we need to travel in it.

This was one of the one things that she wouldn't hesitate about when it came to this blue eyed stranger, them having to go on foot would mean the number of things that they were able to travel with would be limited to her backpack and whatever else she could carry on her person. So, any extra space she could have to carry the needed items would be good.

"Fine, get whatever you can carry." Bonnie permitted.

"Yes, ma'am." Damon soluted.

This earned a side eye from Bonnie.

Damon got everything into his duffle bag that he could manage, anything that he could gather from around the house in which he think would help them on their travels.

A little less than an hour later, they had both of their bags packed.

"I'm ready to go when you are." Damon started.

She put the backpack on her back, then used a strap to connected her bow and arrow, along with the sack of arrows to her backpack, so that her hands would be free.

"Let's leave." Bonnie spoke.

Damon slung the duffel bag over his shoulder and harassed his rifle to himself. "Awesome, can't wait to start our adventure."

Bonnie just opened the door and stepped outside.

Damon stepped out behind her and moved to her side. "Today is the start of teamwork!" He offered his hand for a high five.

"Whatever." Bonnie brushed him off.

"Hey, you're going to leave me hanging like that." Damon joked.

"We should get going." Bonnie simply said back.

Damon pointed. "If we head North this way, then it will lead to a secondary road which will began to lead us east."

Bonnie furrowed her brows. "How do you know that."

A smug expression came upon his face. "Because a man has a strong sense of directions, at least one like me."

Her expression turned blank. "Just lead the damn way."

"Alrighty then, follow me." He began walking.

She paused and took one last look back at the house, which had been her quiet security and her place that she stayed in for the last few months. But, today would be the last day she would ever lay her eyes on it. She just hoped that the destination was worth the risk. She shook her head and began following the blue-eyed stranger.

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The two of them walked for hours and a trip which would get them to that secondary road within four hours in a car, of course took them much longer on foot. They had started to walk in the morning and it was now after one o'clock in the afternoon. Damon was leading them along a small rural road, which Damon convinced her would lead them to that road, which lead east.

They came up upon a speed sign, that had a spray painted symbol on it. Which meant that a particular person or group of people had been in this area sometime in the past. Although whoever did it appeared to be long gone. And the two of them hadn't seen another person in sight, as they appeared to be the only people around for miles.

However long it had been since the people or person who passed by had sprayed the sign, Bonnie could tell who the symbol had longed to and it was a will known and feared symbol to many.

"Fucking Militia." Bonnie sneered.

Damon saw her negative reaction to the symbol which he had recognized as well. "You're aware of the Militia?"

"Who isn't aware of them?" Bonnie glared at the sign. "With how they are cruel and heartless pieces of shit who go around and kill just for the sake of terrorizing people. They commit heinous acts and are the lowest form on the human scale. So, yeah I'm well aware of the Militia."

"Seems like they have built up the terrible reputation for themselves." Damon's mood turned somber for a brief moment.

"And with good reason. I suppose you were right when you said that there are worse things than stealing or being a bandit. There are those who are disgusting and low enough to belong to a group like the Militia." Bonnie said lowly.

Damon swallowed. "The best bet is to avoid those snakes by whatever means."

Bonnie commented. "True, however some people aren't fortunate enough to be able to avoid them."

He added. "If we keep going this way at this pace, then we should reach the road that leads East by tomorrow morning."

They walked for about twenty minutes longer.

Then Bonnie brought up. "We should take a break, we've been walking for hours and I'm a little tired and hungry."

"Yeah, let's rest for a little while." Damon agreed.

Bonnie maneuvered herself to the side of the road, into a grassy area that was shaded by the trees. She removed the backpack from her back and sat down.

Damon took a seat next to hour, glad that they would be resting for a while before continuing on.

She began sorting through her bag and pulled out some water, beef jerky, some crackers, and a zip lock bag of mixed nuts. She then spilt all of the them equally and gave half of them over to Damon, while she kept the other half for herself.

"Here." She held the food and water out to him.

"Wow, Bonnie you're offering me food without me having to ask for it or steal it." Damon teased.

"Please, don't flatter yourself. I'm giving this to you for myself more than anything. Can't have you watching by back properly from the dangers we may face if you are weak from hunger." Bonnie scoffed.

Reaching out he took the food and water. "Nonetheless, I am grateful for whatever you give me. Knowing how special it is to conserve food in these times."

She just started to eat the food that she had saved for herself.

He drank his water. "Sounds like you had some dislike there for the Militia back there, a dislike which surpasses them just having a terrible reputation."

"All I'm going to say is that they did something very personal against me." She spat with venom.

This peaked his interest in the matter. "Personal as in what?"

"I prefer not to go into detail about it." Bonnie replied.

"You could, The militia seems like a mighty sore spot for you." Damon pointed out.

"Why do you need to know." Bonnie went on in confusion.

He shifted. "I'm just interested in why you seem to hate them so much and talking about it may get those feelings off of your chest."

"Listen, this is how we are going to handle this situation. You and I are taking this trip on a strictly business deal, because we both want to reach this settlement. Other than that I have interest in nothing else when it comes to you, which means that you don't dig into my personal life and I won't give a shit about your personal life. I'm not here to cozy up with no one." Bonnie snapped out.

"Whoa, whoa, easy there." Damon widened his eyes. "I just thought that since we are going to be stuck together for a while, that it would be good if we could get comfortable and friendly with each other. No offense meant."

Bonnie was calmer this time, but still held an edge. "I don't do friendly and there's no need for us to become do that in order for us to reach our destination. As I stated, this ordeal between us will remain business. Just respect my space and drop the subject got it, Damon."

Damon let out a dramatic sigh. "Yeah, Yeah I got it, I'll respect your space."

And with that there was silence between them. They just sat there on the ground with her eating her food and him eating the food which she had given to him. Along with the water that they were drinking.

Through the moment he kept stealing glimpses towards her, however she avoided eye contact with him. Damon didn't know her very well, since of course he had met her just yesterday. But, from the conversation she had and the way that she shut him down made him realize something about who she was as a person.

At least he viewed part of her personality as to be a woman who was closed off and didn't take a liking to opening up or welcoming people emotionally. Certainly not when it came to people that she had just met. Bonnie appeared to be a person who had this harsh wall built up around her and didn't warm up to many people because of it. Because of this, he learned that she wasn't going to easily warm up to him or that it would take a while if she ever did.

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Thank you for the reviews and the support! I apologize for any spelling or grammar errors that I missed.