The girls rode silently in their respective vehicles as they sped down the highway towards northern Denver. They planned on using the rest of the day to scope out the city from the outskirts, hoping that they could scout a store or two to look for supplies. Tori wasn't really expecting to find anything, neither were the others if they were honest about it, but everyone tried to keep up an appearance for everyone else so group morale would stay high. Sarah was still young enough to at least be somewhat fooled by it, and they had decided if they could make the situation easier on her, then it was worth it for all of them.

The treeline didn't give up much compared to what it would have before the conflict. Usually the stretches of woods along the highway would be rife with deer and other small creatures, but due to the panic and commotion from the Conflict it seemed that most of the critters had scurried off to their hidey holes. It wasn't a welcome thing, that's for sure, seeing as they were going to be camping in the area and small game would give them fresh meat to sustain themselves. Then again, she wasn't really sure anyone in their group had the know-how, or the stomach, to gut and cook an animal.

There was still plenty of cars on the highway and in some points it was hard to maneuver the cars around the stopped traffic. They got to a certain point where it looked like there had been an accident and people ended up fleeing their vehicles. Since there was a big concentration of them Diana thought it would be a good idea to pull over and check some of them for usable supplies, so stopped the truck and waited until Marie pulled along side her.

"We should take a few minutes to search these cars and see if we can find anything" said Diana.

"OK, we'll take the other side of the road" said Marie.

Initially it looked like most of the cars closest to them had been pretty empty, but their perseverance paid off after close to an hour when Cora hailed the rest of the group to an inconspicuous four door sedan about a quarter mile up the road. She had popped the trunk from inside the car and was standing with her back to it when the others arrived to check it out. They were instantly met with an awful smell that made their eyes water and Tori covered her mouth with the back of her hand.

"What is that?"

"There's a body in the car" said Cora, a look of disgust on her face. "But look what I found in the trunk."

There were two suitcases that had been unzipped and lay open with their contents to bare. The first one held two handguns with accompanying ammunition while the second one held a stockpile of pill bottles. They already had rifles from the soldiers in Wanagi but handguns were a lot easier to conceal, making them the better choice for recon style missions. The prescriptions in the second bag were everything from over the counter headache medicine to morphine pills, something that Cora hadn't missed.

"I took one of those when I first called you guys over, for my hand" said Cora. "I hope you don't mind."

"Of course not" said Marie, "you were shot. You deserve it."

"Well I wanted to make it known so we can keep an open group dynamic you know. We all make the decisions on how the resources are used together."

"Sounds good" said Diana.

"I agree" said Tori, zipping the bags back up. "I also agree that it smells horrible over here so we should haul these back to the car and keep searching on the way back."

They didn't find anything as exciting on the way back, only a couple of empty reusable water bottles, some bungee cords and tire iron, all of which they were still immensely thankful for. During their checks of the vehicles they had mapped out a way for them to get through and continue south so once they had loaded the vehicles the trip marched on. Conversation was kind of light since not much had happened in the last week except for the fall of Wanagi, and they had already gone over that as much as anyone wanted to. Talk of the town always ended up in back where Matthew's body lay in the road and no one wanted to revisit that scene in their head.

A solid few hours of travel led to an exit that seemed pretty devoid of traffic or any other debris so Diana made her turn off and Marie followed suit. Their car was just as quiet with Sarah lying quietly in the back seat and no real chatter up front. Marie and Cora didn't really know anything about each other so the potential for conversation was great, but the looming exhaustion and longing for a stable environment took all of the energy they had to be animated. It wasn't all bad, since silent car rides were the perfect opportunity to reflect on what had happened and build a vision going forward, which meant everyone had been using the time to form ideas for the next part of their lives.

The town they exited into was a sort of funnel that allowed people from the suburbs to enter the city for work and play. It wasn't a particularly big town but it had several major roadways into the city at all different points, which was at once a good and a bad thing. It gave them a lot of direct access to the city if they wanted to go in for whatever reason, but it also made it harder to watch their immediate area with so many potential directions of attack. Tori tried to take in as much of the area as she could and mentally map it so wherever they stopped she would be able to sketch out a rough map.

The first street they turned down looked like a scene from a movie. Nice houses stood pretty much untouched aside from a small layer of ash from the fires of the city. Fences still stuck up in front yards and fire hydrants stood red and yellow as they always had, almost like the conflict didn't even touch this area. She was about to impressed until they hit a four way stop and saw the next street over, which was almost the complete opposite. The further down they drove the signs of battle got more and more apparent until the last street that stopped at a T, which looked like it had been wiped out completely. Many of the homes were barely standing and some even smouldered still with small wisps of gray smoke fluttering into the air. Diana waved Marie up and she pulled next to them so the cars were side by side.

"You go left and we'll go right" said Diana. "We'll meet back here around eight, that's two hours."

"Sounds good" said Marie. "You guys be careful, keep your eyes open."

"You too."

Marie pulled off to the left and drove slowly as she swept her side of the street. Cora did the same on hers, eyes open for any sort of movement or buildings that looked like they could contain something useful. They passed through one neighborhood that had seen a pretty horrific accident at the corner of a four way stop. A bike was literally folded in half under a tipped over car that had very obviously burned at a high temperature, seeing as the rubber from the tires was melted into the pavement. The bike frame molded with the heat and made it look like it was attached to the car, and Cora shook her head with the thought of the outcome of the bodies that were involved in the accident. Marie leaned over and checked out what she was looking at, wincing a little at her own thoughts of what could have happened.

"Never thought we would see so much gnarly stuff in our lives, huh?" asked Marie.

"You said it. I just can't help but wonder who the people were that used to own the abandoned cars we find, or that used to run the stores we see have been broken into and looted."

"I know how you feel. The coffee shop I worked for was owned by this one guy but I was the only one that ever worked there. I did all of the inventory and stuff too, so it kind of felt like I owned it, you know. Makes me sad to think that someone probably broke in there the second they got the opportunity and stole all of the food and money. It kind of makes me feel like they took it from me personally."

"Yeah I guess I can understand that" said Cora. "That would piss me off too. You work so hard for something and then this happens and everyone feels like they can just take whatever they want."

"Problem is most of the time they can. Who's going to stop a crazy person with a gun?"

The last question sent each of them into their own heads, contemplating a situation where some insane person with a gun was trying to steal from them. Of course anyone in that situation would want to say they would stand up and fight for what was theirs, but no one can really make that call until they're in the moment itself. Circumstance changes everything.

The first split out of the original neighborhood brought them into a shopping district. There were three main buildings; a gas station, a supermarket and long rectangular building that Marie guessed was a strip mall. A quick look to the right showed Diana and Tori pulling into the gas station so Marie headed straight through the light to the strip mall. She parked close to the door with the car facing the road in case they needed to make a quick getaway and then waited by the door for Cora to get Sarah moving again.

They entered the mall together through the front doors and stepped first into a card store. There wasn't much that Marie figured could be of use in there so they only did a quick sweep of the isles and then fed into the main mall stretch. It was still light outside so the glass ceiling in the center of the place filled with a good amount of light, but going off into the stores was a different matter. The further stores were almost completely dark and navigating them was a pain, since a lot of them had already been turned over and much of the merchandise that wasn't looted was on the ground. A quick sweep of the directory showed that while the mall wasn't very large it had some interesting stores, including a Cabella's. Cora pointed to it on the directory and and looked over her should to see which direction they should go.

"We need to check here first. If any of these stores have things we need it'll be this one."

"OK" said Marie. "Lead the way."

A few of the stores looked like they had been completely cleaned out, mostly the ones with clothes or candy, while some looked like they hadn't been touched. Upon passing a Claire's Marie remembered when she first got her ears pierced. Her mom had taken her to the one in the mall by their house when she was seven years old after she saw a girl around her age with earrings at school. She bugged her mom for days from morning to night about getting them done and finally she had gotten her wish. When they got to the store and she actually saw someone in front of her get it done however, she almost changed her mind. The thought of getting something sharp jabbed through her ear didn't even cross her mind at first, she just wanted to look pretty. She smiled at the memory and even laughed internally at how vain she could be sometimes.

The store they were looking for was around the second bend they took from the center of the mall. The big green banner hung proud over the entrance, claiming for all to see that their store was the end all be all for your outdoors experience. It was obvious from the get go that the place had already been hit pretty hard but it would be naïve to turn around without checking it out, so Marie led the way in. Cora and Sarah broke left and she went right, checking along the wall to the back end to see if anyone was in there before she continued deeper. There weren't any apparent signs of people so she weaved in and out of stands to get to a display case in the middle of the store that held hunting knives. The case was broken and the majority of the knives were gone but a few remained, although they were small. She grabbed two of the four and left the others for someone else to find, feeling fortunate that they had found anything at all. Cora inspected a large rack of fishing gear, thinking maybe they would be able to find a fishing pole or two to use in the woods. Sarah picked up a premade tacklebox and showed it to Cora who nodded in acceptance.

Most of the other items they would have been able to salvage had already been taken as far as weapons went, and most of the clothing was geared towards cold weather or particular activities like watersports. The girls met back up and did a sweep of the back wall together, finding nothing of interest, then made their way back to the front of the store. They passed a fountain with real fish in it that wasn't running anymore but it still looked serene, making each of them want to sit on the edge and relax for a bit, but they knew they had a job to do.

The rest of the stores were a bust so a mutual decision was made to clear out and find another building. On the way Cora checked her watch in the light and saw they still had plenty of time left, so she held a thumb up to signal Marie and they headed back to the car.

The gas station Diana pulled into was pretty good sized, having service pumps on both sides of the building. Tori got out and went to the back of the building to check the perimeter and didn't encounter anything except more abandoned cars, so she circled back around and they went into the store together. Most of the merchandise was surprisingly still there, even down to the alcohol, so they searched for bags behind the counter and started filling them. Diana unwrapped a king size Snickers and took one half for herself and handed the other to Tori.

"Can you believe all this stuff is still here?" asked Diana.

"No, this is really a great find" said Tori. "I hope we can find more places like this but I think we got lucky here."

"Well keep a positive attitude and maybe we will. You know, they say the universe kicks back what you put out."

"Who said I put out?" Tori joked with a playful look in her eye.

"Call it a hunch" said Diana.

"Sassy, I like it."

They laughed together on the way back out to the truck and sat down on the curb side by side. The haul they'd gotten from the gas station was probably going to be the best they could hope for in the area so Tori decided it would be alright if they hung out for a few and just enjoyed each other's company. It was much easier to do out in the open instead of in the truck, especially when they had food and water in their bodies.

It was starting to get warmer by the day. They were heading into the the latter half of May and before they knew it June temperatures would be creeping up. They mostly still had warm clothes from when they left the city, although everyone was smart enough to pack some lighter things too. They would need to go through their bags when they found a campground to re-prioritize their packs. The thought reminded Tori of Matthew's pack and what they would do with it, and she figured he would have wanted them to split it equally. She was still sore about the whole thing, how such a good person had been cut down so unnecessarily and so early in life. He told her about how he wanted to try and start a traveling band that would be able to play music for different groups of survivors across the country. He said they would just travel from one side to the other, top to bottom, looking for groups of people that needed a pick-me-up from the Conflict and they would stay for a night and play their hearts out. Although the good memories made her smile she couldn't help but let a few tears fall, and she had to admit it felt good to let go a little bit.

"What's the matter?" asked Diana.

"It's nothing" said Tori, wiping her palms across her eyes. "I was just thinking about Matthew and his plans to bring the country back together with his traveling band."

"Yeah that sounds like him" said Diana. "I have a feeling he would have been great at something like that."

"He was. I heard a few songs of his that he had recorded himself over time, and he definitely had a gift."

Diana stood up from the curb and held her arms out to Tori, who took them and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. They looked into each other's eyes, trying to feel each other out and see what lay under the surface in words unsaid. Tori took a step forward and melted into Diana's arms, her head turned to the side and lodged into Diana's neck. They stood like that for the better part of five minutes, rocking side to side so slowly that it was almost unnoticeable until the sound of an engine brought them out of their moment. Diana spotted the truck crossing the parking lot of the mall at a steady speed so she grabbed Tori and ducked her next to their own vehicle.

"That's not Marie and Cora."

"No it isn't" said Tori, peeking around the front bumper. "What do we do? Wait and see where they go?"

"It looks like they're going around to the back of the building. We need to move and see if they go inside."

They hopped into the truck and Diana started it up, creeping slowly at first until the truck disappeared around the corner. She sped up to cover ground as quickly as possible and slowed down again when she reached the side of the building. A little feathering of the gas pedal fed the truck up to the edge just enough so they could see around the corner and they spotted the other truck parked near a set of back doors. A man and a woman got out of the truck and headed for the doors but neither of them got a good look at their faces.

"We need to warn them somehow" said Tori.

"Yeah but we can't do that without giving ourselves up either way" said Diana. "I think it would be better if we give them the benefit of the doubt that they'll hear these people coming and hide before they're spotted."

Diana backed the truck up and pulled around to the front doors where Marie had parked the car. She angled the same way out just in case and the two of them sat there waiting, eyes trained on the doors. A few minutes passed and nothing happened so Diana turned the truck off and stepped out again, leaving the driver's side door open. Not even a minute after they had gotten out of the truck a scream erupted from inside the mall and the unmistakable bang of a gunshot followed, prompting Tori to run directly towards the door.

In the mall she heard pounding footsteps coming from the right, and as soon as her eyes adjusted to the darkness she saw Marie skidding around the corner with Cora and Sarah right behind her. The pursuers weren't too far behind since they made an appearance immediately afterward, but something interesting happened as soon as the two groups made eye contact. The woman stopped dead in her tracks while the man kept running, but when he realized the woman wasn't behind him anymore he stopped.

"Let's go F-"

"Diana?" The woman interrupted with a surprised tone in her voice.

"Faye?"

Tori stepped forward but another gunshot into the ceiling made her jump backwards. Her eyes flickered wildly between Faye and the unknown man, not sure what was going on. What she was sure of was that the man in between them had a gun and he wasn't afraid to pull the trigger.

"What are you doing here?" asked Faye.

"I guess I could ask you the same question" said Diana.

"Who cares, let's get out of here" said Marie.

"Made some new friends, Di?" Faye shifted her weight to the right and jutted her hip out.

"You could say that" said Diana, stepping forward and taking Tori's hand in her own.

"Ah, I see" said Faye. "And how's that going for you?"

"It's going well, thanks" said Tori.

"Alright then well this has been a blast, but we have to go." Faye turned to walk back the way they had came but the man that was with her didn't move.

"That's it?" asked Diana.

"Why, is there anything else?"

"I don't see you for over a year and then we run into each other like this, and you're just in and out in less than a minute?"

"Well you know me, I don't like to cause a scene in public."

Diana felt like she was being blown off and suddenly wasn't interested in talking anymore. "Fine, let's go guys." She turned around without another look and headed through the door with the rest of the girls in her wake. Outside they piled back into the vehicles to head out but before they could get underway the mall door opened and Faye passed through.

"Are you staying around here or passing through?"

"We're not sure yet" said Tori.

Faye seemed to chew on her words for a second but recovered quickly. "We're with a group of people the next town over and we're always picking up new people. So if you don't have anywhere to go you could come with us."

"Jesus Faye are you gonna walk them right into the camp no questions asked?" The man she was with looked wild-eyed with his finger on the trigger.

"I've known this girl my whole life, she's cool" said Faye.

"Yeah but you don't know the rest of these people."

"Well obviously she trusts them and if I trust her, then you know, transitive property."

The man looked confused and Tori guessed that he didn't put a lot of stake in book learning. Marie and Tori exchanged a look that Cora caught, and the three of them all looked to Diana to see what she would say. Diana could feel the eyes on the back of her neck and she wondered if that's how Dom felt in the hotel with Colin and Calloway. She sure felt the pressure of making group decisions but now wasn't the time to weight the pros and cons.

"I can't make the decision by myself, but I'm willing to go. If these three are willing to come along that's their own choice."

"I'm in" said Tori.

Marie looked at Cora and they both shrugged their shoulders.

"Why not" said Cora.

"Alright then. You can follow us back to camp."

Faye and the unnamed man walked along the edge of the building to the left so they could wrap around and get their truck. Once inside they circled back to the front and Diana pulled behind them, followed closely by Cora, who had switched seats with Marie. They pulled out of the parking lot single file and headed west towards their potential new home.

The drive took about twenty minutes and by the time they had gotten close to the camp Tori wasn't sure there even was one. The area they had arrived in was pretty bare and it definitely didn't look like there was a settlement anywhere nearby. Two roads ran parallel to each other with a strip of self storage containers between them and then met on the other side, but the newly joined road ran out and became dirt at the edge of a large field with trees on either side. Tori looked at Diana and neither one of them really knew what to think, so they just continued behind in silence. Faye's truck continued into the dirt and made a bee line for the trees on the right side, eventually pulling into the woods. The trail looked really rough from the outside but once they had driven about half a mile the brush cleared up into a clean trail. They took the trail another five minutes and eventually came into a decent sized clearing in the middle of the woods, completely with a tent city and bonfire.

"Imagine that" said Tori.

"You said it."

There had to be at least a few dozen people in the clearing they pulled into. There was a row of cars and trucks off to the side that Faye was heading for so they followed and found a place to park beside her. When they got out Faye was standing by her door waiting for them to give a small tour of the place. Once Marie and Cora and Sarah caught up Faye moved forward wordlessly.

They walked to the center of the clearing where a bonfire was smoldering and a few people stood around talking. They nodded at Faye as she passed and eyed the rest of them a little suspiciously, but that was to be expected. Faye continued walking until she reached the road they entered on and turned around to face everyone.

"This section to the left is for setting up camp. Tents, sleeping bags, whatever you have. The middle where the bonfire is is a common area, sort of a meeting place or whatever. Off to the right is a trail that leads to an outhouse and the supplies are kept in the big R.V in the back."

Tori checked out each section separately then stood back on her heels with her arms across her chest. She waited and watched as the other girls did the same, scoping out the area, watching the people a little bit to get a feel for how they operated. It only took a couple minutes until everyone seemed to be satisfied enough with what they had seen to give their nod of approval. Faye turned to Diana to see what she had to say and blushed a little bit when they made eye contact.

"Looks nice" said Diana. "We wouldn't mind staying for a few days if that would be all right."

"A few days? You got somewhere else you need to be?" asked Faye.

"I don't know. Maybe." Diana looked down at her hands as she picked some dirt out of her nails. "I know Tori wanted to go west and see if we can find her parents and her sister at one point, she may still."

Faye's face turned to one of concern at the mention of going towards the coast. She shifted uncomfortably and cleared her throat before speaking. "You, uh, you can't go out to the coast. There's nothing out there."

"What do you mean?" asked Tori.

"Just what I said. We're going east for a reason. Everything to the left of us is gone. Most of the towns burned to the ground at the start of the Conflict."

Diana reached forward and took Tori's hand again, squeezing it tight. Marie bit her lip and rocked back and forth on her heels with her hands in her pockets while Cora brought Sarah into her side. They all looked around in a moment of silence since no one really knew what to say. The man that Faye was with nodded her over to him so she bowed her head and backed away slowly, then turned and disappeared.

There wasn't much to do from then on except to get their tents set up, so they returned to the truck so everyone could grab their bags. Once everything was hauled over to the tent section they worked on getting everyone's tents up, one after the other until they were all standing and poled into the ground. Marie dusted her hands off on her pants and looked accomplished, which was something for her since her only interaction with camping equipment before a month ago was on the Outdoor channel on cable. Cora and Sarah ducked inside of their tent with their bags to get working on rearranging some things and Marie did the same. Diana watched a few kids playing with a football near the center of the clearing when Tori came up to join her.

"How are you feeling right now?" Tori asked. "You gotta be reeling a little bit at least."

"Yeah. I never expected to see anyone from the circle, especially like this. I think she's mad at me for leaving her." Diana used the tip toe of her shoe to drill a hole in the grass.

"She seems a little ruffled in the feathers but I'm sure that's nothing a little time together won't smooth over. Once we get settled in you guys can take a walk and talk things out."

"I hope you're right, it would be a lot easier if we were on good terms."

"So, do you think this place is it?" Tori asked, extending her arms to the grounds in front of them.

"I don't know, I really don't. I hope we can at least be comfortable here for a little while, it would help a lot in planning for the next stage."

"What's the next stage anyway? Where do we go from here?"

Diana looked Tori in the eye and answered as matter-of-factly as possible. "We go see Dom."