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Morning came all too soon. No idiot, go back to sleep. Too late. I rubbed my face and sat up in bed. Beams of yellow sunlight were coming in through the ice covered window, telling me it snowed last night. My back hurt, my legs and arms hurt, my neck felt like it would snap if I twitched. Just sitting up hurt and the cold air sure wasn't helping. I pulled myself from bed and limped over to the window, rubbing away some of the ice so I could see outside.

The sky was a deep, cloudless blue and the sun was shining brightly off the white snow that blanketed the ground. May have to put the tire chains on. Due to the fact that my body was stiff like a board, dressing was somewhat difficult, but in the end I managed. Raf's teeth were chattering, so I grabbed the comforter from my bed and lay it over him so he could sleep longer, he needed it. So do you.

I unlocked the door and stepped outside. The frozen air stung my scrubbed raw arms through the selves of my field jacket and pants, making my ache worse. Am I even fit to drive? The thin, airy snow was crunching easily underneath my boots, making me believe that maybe the tire chains were unnecessary. It was a thought, until I slipped on a piece of ice concealed underneath the snow and bashed my head, face first, onto the concrete parking lot. I puled myself up, seeing the blood stain I'd left in the snow. I walked to my truck and examined the gash that had been pulled from underneath my left eye in the mirror. It was a pretty deep gash. Normally, I'd have Dad stitch it closed, but since he wasn't around, I simply cleaned the blood off my face and let it go.

I walked back up to the bedroom and woke Raf up.

"Hm?", he asked groggily, "what time is it?"

"Seven in the morning", I answered, "get dressed, I want and early start."

"You okay Cameron?", Raf asked.

"Just tired", I said.

"Then stop waking up so early", Raf said pulling on a shirt and jeans, "why do you always do that?"

"Military", I answered, "I guess I never really got off of the "up at the ass crack of dawn" clock."

Raf laughed, "I bet that smelled like crap."

I couldn't help but laugh, Raf's sense of humor was so intact, it scared me sometimes.

"It did", I replied, "you wanna have a hot breakfast or just grab some snack food from the duffel and eat as we drive?"

"Let's go ahead and have something hot to eat", Raf said, "we didn't eat anything last night and my stomach is killing me."

Raf walked down to the truck and hauled the stove and food back up to the room. He primed it and pulled out a few bags of MREs.

"What sound good?", he asked, "Mac'n Cheese or Chicken Fajitas?"

"Make both", I said, "we can mix 'em together."

Raf gave me a funny look, "sounds good, but I'm coking them separate, you can mix 'em if you want."

"Fair enough", I replied.

Raf and I ate in the hotel room. The food helped to warm me up on the inside and fight off some of the ache that so firmly gripped my entire body. Raf and I ate everything, I was even scraping the bottom of the bowl to get at the last few bits. I feared food would get much more scarce the further south we drove, so I wanted to make sure we ate every possible bite from what we had.

After breakfast, I brushed my mouth to get rid of a weird metallic taste and then we packed up and hit the road again. Raf carried on with reading Battle Of the Ampere while I just tried to focus on the road ahead. Shortly after we had gotten back on the road, Raf blurted out.

"Oh cool. Nichelle joins the team!"

"WHAT!?", I yelled, "RAF! Spoilers!"

"Sorry", Raf grinned, "couldn't help myself."

I would have glared at him, but I needed to focus on the road.

"I'll get you back for that", I said moving in my seat, "count on it."

I turned up Magnum 1's Radioactive Paradise to keep Raf from blurting out anymore spoilers. Soon after the spoiler event, we were driving along a hilly section of the interstate when I saw a pack of dogs. Their coats were muddy and matted and a lot of them were extremely skinny to the point I could see their ribs through their coats. Some of them were pure breeds, but they sure didn't look like the prized pets they used to be. The dogs were chasing a big cow.

"Cameron what's going on over there?", Raf asked starring at the dogs.

"The dogs are hunting", I said, "they want the cow." Maybe that was a little to much all at once.

"I didn't know pets had that instinct", Raf said.

"Yeah", I said, "they all do, it's just suppressed since they've been domesticated. With people to feed and protect them, they don't need to use their instincts. Now that they're on their own, they rely on their instincts."

"Like you?", Raf asked.

"Huh?", I asked in reply.

"Like you", Raf said, "since your on your own, your relying on Delta training."

I smiled, "I'm not sure Delta counts as instincts, but if you bend the rules a little, maybe you could get away with it."

Raf smirked and went back to the book. The sun began to rise higher in the sky as the morning wound on. It's light showed me what looked like a cloud of smoke and I guessed with the drought that it might be a brush fire. Or survivors that need help...not likely. As the morning wound on, the roads got wet, a sign it had either been snowing or raining.

"Why are the roads wet?", Raf asked.

"Must have been snowing or raining", I said pulling to a stop and engaging Rear Wheel Drive, "keep an eye out for puddles we can fill our canisters with."

The sky began to get progressively darker as we drove. Thunder and lightning was going off in the distance and the wind was blowing hard. My Jack'N The Box antenna topper was being tossed viciously back and fourth. Worried about the threat of a car wreck, the lights came on, I slowed to a stop and engaged All Wheel Drive. It's a big, manual pick up on brand new off-road treads. A little rain or snow won't even be a small problem, your losing it Cameron. Soon after my switch to AWD, the rain began coming. At first it was just a light shower, then it was a light storm, soon it was torrential.

"I think this may be what's left of a hurricane", I said shifting into fifth gear.

"You think?", Raf asked, "is it hurricane season even?"

"Hell if I know", I said shifting again, "but it sure seems like that."

The rain drops were so big and heavy, each individual one made a distinct sound when it hit the pickup. I could see with what light was coming from the dash that Raf was attempting to count the drops, but was having somewhat of a hard time. Hell of a way to stay occupied. The rain and the winds didn't let off. The wind blew the rain in such a way that my entire windshield was nothing but one big watery blur. The wipers were working overtime, but not having much success. I suspected they were worn out.

"47,797", Raf said,

"What?", I asked.

"The number of drops I counted before I gave up."

I laughed, "I'd dare you to try and count all the drops in one storm but..."

Raf smirked, "infinity. I win."

"That's cheating", I said, "there's a finite number."

"Your crazy", Raf said.

"Yes clearly I have serious mental problems", I said, "I'll check into who the hell made you a mental health expert tomorrow."

"I wanna see the form", Raf said, "otherwise how do I know that you actually signed up?"

I smiled. I knew I had lost, so I didn't fight him anymore. The rain slowly let up as the time passed. The grey sky began to break into patches and soon dispersed completely. The road was still yet and there was a lot of water in the surrounding ditches. One of the rules of survival is that you don't drink water that you can question the purity of. Even if it looks clean, chances are good that it's filled with bacteria of all shapes and sizes. Drinking contaminated water can lead to Dysentery, Cholera and a whole host of water born illnesses. Add to the that the chance of chemical pollutants, oil, gas, anti freeze or what ever else might be floating around from nearby plants or fertilizer from farms and chances are good you'll wind up dead from dehydration by vomiting or from vapor burned throat.

Problem was that we needed water. Not only for drinking, but cooking and the truck. I could just filter the water for the truck, bacteria wasn't an issue. But as far as drinking and cooking went I had to make sure the water was free of any bacteria, as well as Agent Six. I began slowing the truck.

"We stopping for something?", Raf asked.

"Water", I said pulling to a stop and killing the truck.

"From the ditch?", Raf asked. I could tell he was confused.

"Yeah", I said, "it's time for another survival lesson. I want you to log this one too."

Raf grabbed his phone from the glove box and slid out of the truck. I exited my pickup and walked around to the back and dropped the tailgate. I pulled out the stove and the big pot along with a smaller one.

"Remember on our camping trips how Dad used to say how no one method of treating water covers all the basics? Dissolved solids, chemicals, bacteria?"

"Yeah", Raf replied.

"Well distillation comes pretty damn close", I replied, "this is an old still that Dad made a while ago and I'mma show you how to use it."

I walked over to the ditch with the big pot and a metal screen that was stretched with tightly woven polymer cloth.

"The first thing you wanna do is just eyeball it", I said, "look and see if you can see anything floating around, be it paper, dirt, whatever. If you think you can see colors like tan, blue, red, yellow, then that's chemicals that are lighter than water and float. Gas, oil, anti freeze, fertilizer and even brake cleaner or battery acid. You won't wanna touch that, not in any way, shape or form. Since I don't see any of that, I'll go ahead and fill this pot."

I dunked the pot into the deep ditch. There were bubbles popping on the surface as the water soaked through the fabric and pushed the air in the pot out. When the pot was full, I pulled it out and walked it back over to the stove. I capped it, ran the hose into the other pot and then turned the fire on high.

"You wanna boil this for about a half an hour or so", I said, "since the steam rises, it with flow through the hose and into the other pot. You may lose a little bit of water from cruder stills, but a little know how and the right tools can net you a still with losses as low as .01%."

"Translation", Raf said, "do it how you see it here. End Log Entry Eight, Journey Day Ten, Pandemic Day 40, Time is 12:41 PM."

"Is that really gonna take a half an hour?", Raf asked.

"Probably", I replied, "maybe longer, in the mean time, I'mma teach you how to shoot the MK11."

"Dad's big AR-15?", Raf asked.

"Yep", I said hauling it out of the bag, "I'm gonna go back down the road aways and set up some stuff for you to shoot at."

Raf nodded as I walked back down the road. Though the ditch was clean, the area between the guard rails was ripe with glass bottles and paper cups. I grabbed as many as I could fit in an old Walmart bag I'd picked up and walked out to a distance of 200 yards from the truck. I filled some of the paper cups with water and lined them up. I walked to 350 and repeated the same thing. 400 and 600, same thing. I then walked to five hundred and filled the bag with water, tied it closed and set it down. Back at the truck, Raf was sitting in the truck playing a game on his phone.

"Targets are set", I said, "range time."

"Awesome", Raf said tossing his phone in the backseat and hopping out.

I set up my old army green poncho liner on the ground and set up the MK11 and my spotting scope. The gun was almost as long as Raf was tall, but he wasn't intimidated by it, having grown up around guns.

"The stock is adjustable", I said, "make the weapon fit you."

Raf adjusted the stock until he was comfortable. I popped the scope covers off and peered through it.

"The gun is zeroed for six hundred yards", I said, "do you see the red dots in the scope?"

"Yes", Raf replied.

"At six hundred yards, each one of those dots you hold of from the center of the target is three feet. At six hundred yards, you generally have to hold off about six to nine feet from the center of the target to compensate for the rotation of the Earth, otherwise know as the Coriolis Effect."

"The spinning of the Earth can decide if you miss?", Raf asked.

"Yep", I replied, "I owe my life to it. I was in Iraq and a sniper tried to take a potshot at me. I think he was aiming dead center of my head, but the bullet struck about ten feet to my right."

"Wow", Raf said.

"Yeah", I said, "it's not like the video games where you put the cross hairs on someone's face, shoot and they die. Aim small miss small, aim big hit big."

"So never try for the head shot?", Raf asked.

"Only if you can be ABSOLUTELY sure you will not miss", I said, "Dad could make any shot, but then again, Chris Kyle trained him. There's a red Burger King cup three hundred yards off. Put the cross hairs on it and pull the trigger, if you miss the first shot, add one dot of hold off."

Raf paused for a moment before pulling the trigger. The bullet struck the ground just at the base of the cup, but it flew into the air in shreds from the resulting stone shrapnel. Maybe not a instant kill, but definitely a crippling hit.

"That shot maybe wasn't an instant kill", I said, "but you dealt that guy a fatal blow if he doesn't get patched up soon."

"I'm a cup murderer", Raf smiled, "one they'll make a movie called the Interstate 81 Cup Sniper."

I laughed, "let's add to the carnage shall we? I just declared open season on that water filled bag at 500 yards. It's a big target, so aim dead center and see if you hit, better to get it wrong now than when the guy with a gun to my head is in the scope."

Raf adjusted his aim and fired. The bag popped like a big zit, the dirty water inside going everywhere. Your a damn good shot little bro.

"Kill shot", I said, "shoot the bottles at 400. Remember, aim center, hold off one dot as needed."

Raf fired another round. I saw it hit the asphalt near the bottles, but no bottles disappeared.

"Miss", I said, "hold off to the right."

Raf adjusted the gun and fired another round. The wind was beginning to pick up and it was blowing cold and hard. I went to the truck to get our jackets and then I resumed with the lesson.

"Wind speed affects bullet path too", I said, "if it's strong enough, it can even blow tank rounds off course. Remember, try and see where your bullet hits in the scope, and then put the dot where it landed on the target."

Raf moved the gun and fired another shot. I saw two bottles that were close by each other vanish in a cloud of green glass and dirty brown water. I smirked.

"Oh a crushing blow from the Vault Hunter!"

Raf laughed, "if it took more than one shot, you weren't using a Jakobs."

"Kill the bottles at six hundred", I said, "all you need is one."

Raf adjusted his aim and cracked off another shot. The bullet missed the target by about six feet. I wanted to correct him. How's he gonna learn if you tell him how much to hold off every time he misses? Raf adjusted his aim and fired a second round. This time, the bullet went straight through the bottle and smashed it.

"Nine years old and you can already shoot six hundred", I said, "god there is something not right about that."

"Why?", Raf asked as he stood up.

"I dunno you tell me", I replied, "you can now kill a man from half a mile away, and your nine."

Raf grinned.

"Note to self", I said as I checked the water, "take firing pins from all weapons if I value my head. Well now that the water's done, I want you to add it to the containers while I swap the sights on our rifles."

Raf poured the now distilled water into our containers and canteens before packing everything up. I switched the sights on our rifles and re-zeroed my AR for 250 yards and Raf's AK for 120. I also showed him how to field strip and care for the MK11. I then policed my .223 brass and soon we were on the road again. The wind accompanied us most of the day. I could see my antenna shaking violently with our 75+ miles an hour plus the wind and it eventually got so crazy I stopped the truck and removed my antenna topper so I wouldn't lose it.

About an hour after our shooting lesson, I saw an exit sign that read, "Food, Wendy's, Lodging, Super 8 Motel, America's Best Value In, Best Western and Gas, Texaco Diesel, Shell Clean Diesel, System 3-Gasoline", next right.

"Wanna take a lunch break?", I asked.

"Sure", Raf said, "all the killing made me hungry."

"Oh and I'M the crazy one?"

Raf just grinned. I was nearing the exit and had just changed lanes when I noticed a CDC barricade that stretched all the way across the interstate road. I could see several people guarding it from the truck, they all looked armed.

"What's going on up here?", Raf asked.

"Looks like a CDC barricade", I said.

"Are those people guarding it?", Raf asked curiously.

I could see someone waving me to come closer. I looked over at Raf.

"Do we take the chance?", Raf asked.

"I don't know", I replied, "'member the the kid back in New York?"

"Yeah", Raf replied, "but they can't all be bad like that, can they?"

"I guess were about to find out", I said.

Slowly, with one hand on the shifter, I drove up to the barricade. There were six women all armed with assault and semi-automatic rifles guarding the thing. I could see a few tents and other people running around behind it. Something about the whole set up bothered me. One of the 4 women motioned for us to step out of the truck. I grabbed my AR and stepped out with Raf. We left the doors open and the engine running, just in case.

"Who are you?", one of the ladies asked. She was a short, elderly lady who I'd say was around 65-70.

"Just passin' through", I said, we didn't walk up to them, we stayed with the truck.

"Is that little boy with you willingly?", she asked.

Raf and I exchanged glances.

"Uh?", I said, "yeah."

"I'm not asking you", the lady firmly stated, "I'm asking him."

"Don't talk to my brother that way", Raf said.

"Oh sweetie", the lady said, her tone shifted from angry to concerned, "you look awfully skinny, when was the last time your "brother" fed you?"

Raf looked at me, the look on his face seemed to say, "WTF?"

"This morning", he replied.

"Did he really?", she asked, "or did he just tell you to say that or he'd shoot you?"

"Shoot my little brother?", I shouted, "who the hell are you?"

"Seriously", Raf asked.

"We are the Sisters of The Apocalypse", the lady said, "we protect innocent women and children from", she starred daggers at me, "your kind. Don't we?"

The others with her, who couldn't be older than 17, all answered, "we do."

"Yeah", Raf said, "I don't know what rock you've been living under, but the only "bad" thing Cameron has ever done to me was tell me I couldn't play his PS Vita."

"Oh honey", the lady said approaching us, "he's brain washed you, come with us, you'll be safe here", she looked at me and smiled evilly, "and he'll pay for what he's done to you."

Raf gave me a worried glance. I shook my head no.

"Sorry", Raf said, "I'll pass."

"Your making a grave mistake", the woman said, "he is not your brother. He's a man, he's nothing but abusive and violent, he'll kill you the second you turn your back. Please come with us, we'll shelter you from the cruel world."

Everything clicked. This was a cult. I remembered my disaster training in Delta. The thing they stressed the most was to be very wary of micro colonies after something big, and this was one.

I ducked back into the truck and Raf with me.

"Cameron?", Raf asked fearfully.

"It's time to get the fuck outta here", I said shifting my Chevy into reverse and engaging All Wheel Drive, "it's a cult."

Raf's face went pale.

"Don't worry", I said flipping my truck around, "they'll not touch you, not while I live."

I put the pedal to the floor, pushing my engine farther than I should have. I'd worry about our trusty steed later, right now, I had to put as much distance as I could between us and psycho lady.