A loud, low-pitched buzz permeated the vehicle loading bay, causing Jarin to look up and away from the map he had been studying in the passenger seat. The massive bay doors rose slowly, letting the bright morning sun stream in through the threshold. The squads in both Humvees scrambled for their sunglasses. Rod Lopez slid on the silver-rimmed aviators that he'd won off Jenkins in last week's poker game before turning the engine over on the Humvee. The vehicle roared to life, helped along by a little extra gas from Lopez, who smiled at the feeling of raw horsepower at his fingertips.

Private Williams leaned up from the middle captain's seat behind Lieutenant Taylor. "Hey LT, you want anyone on the gun?"

Jarin looked back at the gunner's position in the middle of the vehicle's roof. He thought for a quick moment before replying. "If there were any hostiles this far down the panhandle Williams, we'd know, trust me. From here 'til Bravo we're in green territory, so just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride private."

Williams slumped back in the seat. "Will do, sir." He ran his hand over the freshly buzzed blonde hair atop his head, something his dad, the base commander had practically ordered him to maintain since he joined the military just a few months ago.

Taylor folded up the map and tilted his seat back slightly, adjusting his shoulder in the cushioned back Rod had installed a few weeks ago. "Lopez, I know the commander may not have approved, but I certainly love the new seats. Ever going to tell me where you found them?"

Lopez grinned as he dropped the vehicle into gear, taking the lead in front of the other squad. "Remember the underground parking structure at that hospital this past spring?"

Taylor looked to his left, surprised at his response. "Wait, you actually took them out of that Cadillac?"

Lopez smiled. "Nailed it. I had my grandma stitch together some new seat covers, but other than that I got the whole assembly installed. Still working on the power tilt, but the manual works for now."

"How the hell did you get them back and I not notice?" Jarin turned back to make sure the seats behind him were the same custom job. "You must have pulled them out or, what, maybe two different vehicles? Who you'd con into hauling them home for you?"

Lopez shrugged behind the wheel. "I have my ways man, I have my ways."

Jarin scoffed and shook his head, leaning back into the seat to get comfortable for the ride ahead. The group rode in silence for a time, staring off into the open country as they barreled over the dirt road. Unlike most of the squad, Williams had only been out on daylight missions on a handful of occasions, so the sights were still new to him. The last time he was topside he certainly didn't remember the tall grass blanketing nearly everything in sight, having made his last day run with his father two winters ago.

"God, seeing that much green is freakin' crazy.

His words attracted the lieutenant's attention. "Sure beats the hell out of concrete walls 24/7 doesn't it? This is your first day run Jason?"

"Not quite, but it has been a while sir. I haven't been topside during daytime since I went with my dad on a trip up to Bravo."

"Do me a favor Jason, and drop the 'sir 'when we're not at base. You're new to our little band of misfits, but we're not as formal as your dad would like us to be. When we're out in the shit, then yeah, I'm the guy in the charge, but in here we're just a group of dudes." He heard Blake's cough from the back row of seats. "We're just a group of dudes, and a woman, out for a drive."

Jason nodded, looking out the window. His eyes as the group roared past the recycling center and group of 20 or so villagers waved as they passed.

"There weren't people living there last time I was out here."

Blake spoke up from the back row. "Yeah, they moved in during the winter, mostly settlers leaving that old amusement park in Orlando. As big as that place is, their population is getting a little bigger than they can handle so they reached out to us for help moving settlers into key positions. The recycling center is one of the newer ones. We only just got the plant running again last spring. The solar and wind power retrofits were a bitch and a half, let me tell you, but I think it'll make a nice spot for a town once they get a couple harvests under their belt."

Lopez chimed in from the driver's seat. "Not to mention having a strategic position halfway between Orlando and the Outpost will be a nice thing to have."

Simmons cut in next from behind Lopes. "Plus the value of the scrap metal we can start salvaging. Don't think we'll have a metal shortage again for a long time."

Jarin nodded. "All excellent points. Now if you don't mind, please keep it down to a dull roar. I'll be trying to catch a few z's before it's my turn at the wheel."

Four hours, and a couple hundred miles, later the ground had made good time on their way to Outpost Bravo at the repurposed Robbins Air Force Base. After Orlando the roads were particularly rough, putting the suspension on both vehicles to the test. Jason was stunned that most of his squadmates had somehow managed to fall asleep given the jarring ride. When Jarin stirred in the passenger he was just happy to finally have someone to talk to, seeing as how Lopez seemed to be more of the 'keep to himself' type of guy.

"Have a good nap, LT?"

Jarin grunted in reply as he popped the seat back upright. "Yeah, just wish the damn rain wouldn't keep washing out the road."

Lopez chimed in on that note. "Yeah, but then what would we give people for jobs? Just think, in a couple years, we'll have a nice road that doesn't suck all the way north to Bravo."

Taylor cracked his neck, twisting from side to side to work out the stiffness. "Well if they could go ahead and already have it done by the time we're back I sure would appreciate it."

Lopez eased off the gas a bit. "We switching drivers?"

"Up to you my man."

Lopez pulled to the side of the road, which in truth was little more than a rough dirt path this far north of Orlando. From Alpha to the city the road was well maintained, usually on a weekly basis by the work details if the weather held out, but now they were in the middle ground between the two centers of their population, which meant very little road maintenance was ever done this far out.

Lopez rolled down the window as the second Humvee pulled up beside them. He leaned out the window to get their attention. "We're switching up!"

In the second vehicle Simmons nodded, leaning down to apply the parking brake while he got out of the driver's seat for Grissom to take over. While the group was switching, with Jarin taking over the first Humvee, Lopez popped open the glove box to pull out a small rectangular devices. Williams was a little shocked to say the least once he recognized what it was.

"Holy crap, you guys have an MP3 player?"

Jarin laughed in the driver's seat. "Heck yeah. Lopez, our resident poker player won it off Charlie Company's CO last year. It's been a very nice addition to the team ever since." He turned his head sideways toward the passenger seat. "You bring the transmitter?"

Jason's shock turned into curiousity. "Transmitter?"

Lopez replied as he pulled out a cord from the glove box. "This guy will play whatever we put on over the FM bandwidth, meaning both vehicles are going to be able to rock out the rest of the way."

Taylor dropped the Humvee into gear. "Lopez, I want some AC/DC and I want it loud."

"You got it boss."

As 'Highway to Hell' kicked up Taylor tore off down the path, taking the lead on the way north through the vast wastes of the Florida ruins. And for the next few hours, including the fuel stop over at Robbins Air Force Base, a.k.a. Outpost Bravo, the two Humvees jammed out to the albums of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and the other old rock bands that Taylor and Lopez had crammed into the hard drive of the tiny purple Sony MP3 player.

Outpost Alpha Command Center – 3 weeks later
Nov. 1, 2149

Commander Williams stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by a network of computers and technicians, working to coordinate the bases power consumption, monitor communications with the camps and settlements in the area, or maintain the radar system. He always liked standing there, even when he had nothing to do, feeling as though he was in the very brain of his entire civilization. But today, he did have a purpose. He placed his hands on the center table, staring down at the backlit map display with the president across from him. The subtle buzz of the computers and their techs faded into the background as the president spoke.

"What is the position of your scout team, Commander?"

Williams pointed to a location south of the DC ruins. "Their last check in was four days ago right at the end of Sumter's radio relay station. They're well beyond the network now, but that was expected. They had made decent time, but were slowed down by a marsh south of the Chesapeake Bay that was much larger than what was on the map. It would seem in that the 35 years since the last scout mission, it has expanded considerably. Still, Taylor reported that by this time they should be at or nearing Richmond, some 100 miles south-southwest of their target location."

"So even if they reach DC, they have no way of contacting us?"

"Not necessarily ma'am. There are several old military sites that would have what they need to build a larger transmitter, to say nothing of any technology salvaged from those sites themselves."

"That's a large gamble Commander."

"With all due respect, ma'am, the whole mission was a gamble from the word go. But Taylor and his team can get the job done. And if they managed to make contact, just think what we could do with an extra few hundred bodies who actually understand the technology we have at our disposal. We might be able to go from scrapping by to actually having the society we all want. And if anything is worth gambling on, Madame President, it's that."

Across from the commander, the president crossed her arms. "Let's just hope that when the new President takes over in a few months that he feels the same."

A/N: So, let me know what you think of things so far in a review. These first chapters were more or less a two part of the world set up and the action will kick off in chapter 3.