Civilian

"Right down here," I say as I lower myself through the window onto the pile of furniture. I glance back at Kuo, who watches me warily in horror.

"What did you do?!" She demanded, clentching her weapons tightly.

"Calm the hell down, she's just a kid." I muttered, helping Sophia through the window and guiding her down the pile onto the floor. I turned back to close the window.

I landed on the floor with a light thud, and looked at Kuo's stiff, uninviting behavior. "Kuo, cut it the hell out, if she wanted to kill us, she'd be armed. Here," I grabbed a bottle of water from our food collection and handed it to the young girl. She took it carefully and exchanged glanced with the two of us but said nothing.

"Kuo..." I shot her a glare. Her hazel eyes flashed to mine, anger, confusion and fear within them. Slowly, she began to lower her bow, and dropped it on the floor with a quiet clatter. I turned and rifled through my backpack for some food. I passed Sophia a sleeve of crackers, squirrel jerky, and went over to the small fire of cinders, and fixed her up a chunk of fresh rabbit.

"You can sit down if you'd like." I chuckled, her arms loaded up with food. "How long has it been since you last ate?"

"Three days," She says quietly, "I didn't know what to look for out there."

"Okay... Well take it easy then. Overloading an empty stomach can result in something much worse than hunger. I'd advise starting out with some water first."

She nodded, and went to sit in the corner. Kuo took the moment to come up beside me, "What the hell were you thinking? We can't protect her." She muttered.

"We can hardly protect ourselves," I reply, "That's true, but leaving a kid to die, I had a choice. She didn't have long left anyways..."

"And what are we gonna do in the morning? Set her off with a care package?"

"Actually..." I replied, looking down as I stuffed my buck knife back into it's seath. "I'm going to look for that group of hers tomorrow, I'll let her get some rest tonight, tomorrow I'll ask her more questions."

She sighed in exasperation. "How the hell are you going to find them? Better yet, how will you find the right ones?"

"She said they were broke down on the highway. There's a good chance that they're still out there."

"Three days later, really?" She replied sarcastically, "It doesn't take anyone that long if they really want to get moving."

"Well, I'm going to try." I look her in the eyes with determination. Another one of our differences, Kuo didn't like going out on a limb for people, especially now. Which was odd, since she was the people person.

"If I don't find them over the next few days, then she's coming with us."

"She can't!" She cried in disbelief, "We can't pack a kid across Georgia."

"You didn't think that when we were bringin' our whole fuckin' family down from Montana!" I hissed back,

"Things turned out that way because we weren't thinking." She muttered back, her tone frosty, "We can't make anymore mistakes like that, we just need to get to Uncle Briggs. He can protect us."

I scoffed at her comment. "Right, we're gonna be so protected for the rest of our lives." I say sarcastically, "How long will we really have there? Before shit goes south, too?"

"You doubting the plan now?" She scowled at me.

"No, I'm just planning against the worst." I shoot her a sickeningly sweet sweet smile and turn away, the smile falls grim.

I don't like to fight with Kuo, but the primary reason behind our arguments is agreement. She sees things one way, I see them the other. The mission had been since the beginning to get to Fort Bennett for Uncle Briggs. It was a truly pointless mission, really. The whole place could be gone when we arrive, or maybe not. I'm just thinking ahead, incase it is. Kuo doesn't like to even think of things that way. She sets her mind on one thing, and puts hope and faith into it, and won't change her mind for anything until she sees it torn apart in front of her.

I look back at Sophia, and she's looking tired.

"You can sleep. There's a sleeping bag over there." I pointed over by our other gear. I glance up at that window for a moment and sigh, our days here are numbered, as well.



Shortly after Sophia has fallen asleep, and Kuo has retired into her mute mode in the corner with a chapter book, I fish the survey map from out gear pile and flatten it on the cellar floor.

"You won't find them, you know." Kuo pipes up, but doesn't lift her eyes from the book. I don't shoot back any snarky reply, there's no point. I'm going to try, and if I fail, I fail.

I mark locations on the map with a dull pencil, and plan my route for the coming day. I'd need Sophia's input on which highway they were stranded on. There were a lot of them cutting across the Georgia backwoods, all heading towards the heart of Georiga: Atlanta.

After I have a pretty good idea of our setup, I fold the map back up and add it to my backpack for the morning. I blow out my candle, and lie back on the concrete floor and close my eyes.



Hazy morning sunlight comes through the one window in the cellar. The room is so quiet, a pin drop could be heard. I look up, and Kuo's awake, but she's in her fantasy book world.

Sophia still sleeps, but looks slightly restless. Couldn't blame her, I guess. Sleeping around people she doesn't know, I'd be the same way, hell, if Kuo wasn't here, I might not have even slept.

When she woke up, I dug out the map, fixed us some breakfast, and began to ask her about her group.

"Do you know which highway you were on?" I asked her as she ate.

"We were on our way out of Atlanta, same road whole way, I think." She shrugged.

"How close is that road to here, do you think?" I ask while looking down at the map. There were three highways, two major ones, four lanes, and one two-way.

"Pretty close, I guess. We were heading for... A fort? I don't know," She shrugged, "Some place Shane said was safe."

"Fort Bennet?"

"Yeah! We were heading there. Still had a ways to go."

I looked down and tapped the map with my pencil while I thought. "Looks like to me, you were probably on this highway here." I pointed down at the darkest line, curving out of Atlanta. "How far were you from the city?"

She thougth for a moment, "We'd been driving for almost an hour."

"Any landmarks in the area?"

"I followed the creek until I ended up here, it ran pretty close to the road. Umm... There was a traffic block where we were stopped."

"Okay. I'll head out in an hour." I folded up the map and put it into my hunting bag.

"You can't be serious." Kuo grumbled.

"We could use some more food, so lighten up." I muttered back. "I'll get some hunting done while I'm out there, if I find 'em, I'll come back for you and take you to them, okay?"

"Whoa whoa whoa, you're not taking her with you?"

"No. I could get into some trouble and if that happens, I don't need more people to watch out for."

I put together some things for the day, including some left over rabbit and a bottle of water. As I was getting ready to leave, Kuo stopped me. "What if you don't return?"

"I will." I reply, loading my handgun and shoving it into my waistband. "I always do. I'll see you later, start dinner if I'm in too late, and keep her drinking." I pointed at Sophia. "Be careful." I pulled her into a tight hug, pulling away, I climbed up to the window and propped it open while I tossed out my hunting bag onto the damp grass and crawled out into the bright, warm sunlight.

I shut the glass behind me firmly, and shielded my eyes from the bright rays while I pulled out the map as a quick reference. I figured out which way I was facing, and that I needed to head west. With a deep breath, I began my trek through the woods.

I was fairly sure what the fuel was behind my decision to help unite that girl with her group. Maybe it was just my own loss and wounded ego that wanted to do some good.

The woods were beautiful, calm, bird calls came from the darkness of the trees, and reminded me of when I'd set off into the woods on a warm Saturday, when there was no school or work to be done. I was free for a whole 24 hours. But now the whole world is free, and it went to shit... Maybe boring, repetitive routines were a good thing.

I climbed over branches, around boulders, and twigs snapped under my boot soles while I searched for the river vein marked on the survey map. The sun moved overhead while I moved forward, slowing me down with the heat, and limited shade. Most of the trees were too scrawny to provide much, but big enough to hide you from a wandering pack.

Fortunately, I had some hiking boots that were pretty thick around the ankles to protect against sprains, unfortunately, I couldn't say the same for the rest of my body. Down to my army fatigue jacket that sagged on my shoulders, more as a momento than for actual warmth, the thin white tank top and faded black jeans with holes worn in the knees and pockets, they were merely coverage, not protection. I think that was what I was looking forward to most about getting to Fort Bennet, fresh clothes.

Within another fifteen minutes of walking, and pausing to admire the map, and surroundings to figure out my direction, I came across the first branch of the river Sophia had told me about. I pulled out the map to decide how close it ran to the highway.

Maybe a hundred yards out, she hadn't been too far from the road. I folded it back up and picked up the pace, slipping a few times on wet grass and mud, catching myself before I could hit the ground, I wove around trees, kept an eye on the river's angle and the sun's position in the sky.

I came into a wide bend of the stream, and took a moment to deviate from it, to head up a few yards, in a straight line. The hill began to slope upwards, and I could faintly see through a mess of webbed branches and ferns, roadguards along the top of the slope. I pulled out my handgun as I moved up, alert for any sign anyone was out here with me.

I got to the top, and swung my legs over the railing, landing with a quiet thud on a stretch of asphalt. Left and right, was empty of any active presence. There were some roamers drifting around a mess of overturned cars, most just abandonned, for a good stretch of the road. This looked like the place, but with the world the way it is, there could be tons of graveyards of cars to be seen.

The sun was hot on my face as I approached the mess with a half raised gun, searching for signs of life, signs that anyone was here, or had been recently. All I saw was momentos and items left behind by whoever left all these cars behind, backing up a good chunk of the road.

"Ain't it..." I muttered, wiping my forehead, about to pull out the map for a quick brush up when something caught my eye. It was a small white car, all cleared out inside, and on the hood, was some supplies. Food, flashlight, medical items and a blanket, and above it, on the windshield, written in white paint, was the message: Stay here, Sophia. We'll check every day. We love you!

Now there was a small chance that was true, and an even bigger chance that her people were all dead a few miles from here. I could trek through these woods every day and try to catch them, but that would be bad for a number of reasons. The way I was seeing it, this was just a dead end. Regardless, I rounded up the supplies left behind and shoved them into my hunting bag. I'd take them back to Sophia before some shit head hunter found them.

I didn't have any way to reply to the message and tell them she was safe, or where she was. I couldn't very well ship that kid up here to spend the next few days here alone in a car cab waiting for her people, but I knew, that's what Kuo would expect us to do...