The stars shined brightly overhead as the van pulled up to a Bronto Gas station. It rolled quietly into a parking spot before coming to a stop.

The doors opened as Richard, Hetuwa, and Josh climbed out.

“Move quietly inside. We don’t want any unexpected company.”, Richard whispered to the two men.

Josh checked the door to see if it was locked. The door moved quietly allowing the men to enter inside.

The station was littered with the remains of old potato chip bags and empty cans of soda.

Each of them clicked their lights on. They spread out to maximize their search efforts.

Josh searched behind the counter while Richard looked in the storage.

Hetuwa spent his time searching the aisles. He stopped at a map display.

“Yes!”, he quicly shouted in happiness then shrunk down realizing that had just happened.

“Everything okay?”, Josh called over as Richard ran back in.

“Sorry. Found a map.”, Hetuwa explained.

All three of them let out a nervous laugh as they glanced out the windows, searching for movement of any kind.

“That’s better luck than I had.”, Josh said.

“Looks like we were the unfortunate ones to be last to get here.”, Richard said as he moved towards the doors, “We better move out. It’s not safe to stay. We better off stayin in the van tonight.”.

The next morning…

The sun shines in through the windows of the van. Josh lays across the back of the van while Richard and Hetuwa were reclined in the front seats.

“Ugh…”, Josh groans as he sits up cracking his back, “That was….the worst sleep…ever.”.

“Sorry that it was no Four Seasons.”, Richard responded, “Hopefully today we can find somewhere to lay low.”.

“On the plus side, We at least know where we’re at.”, Hetuwa happily added.

“Oh yeah, we scored at that stop last night.”, Josh said, “Whatever shall we do with the awesome find of that map.”.

“Okay. I’m going to pretend that your thrilled with it.”, Hetuwa retorted, “But least we know that we are in Meagher Valley.”. Josh rolled his eyes.

“That is one win for us.”, Richard pointed out as he straightened his seat back into position, “Well. Two considering that we are still alive.”.

Josh thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. Even though, it hadn’t been long since Z-Day, they were still better off than many others in the world.

“Goal for today. Let’s find somewhere to hunker down.”, Richard stated as he started the van up and it moved out of the car park back onto the road.

“It couldn’t be that hard.”, Hetuwa cheerfully said.

Two Hours Later…

The van pulled down another street.

“Okay, maybe it can.”, Hetuwa said as they slowly moved through the street. The van steering slowly around the deserted cars and littered road.

They pulled up to a house. It had a cement wall surrounding it with four gates as the way of entry. Barbed wire was added to tops of the wall, but stopped at a certain point. It was as if the owners had run out of steam before Z-Day had hit.

The mailbox at the end of the driveway read Carlington.

“Well, this one has character.”, Richard suggested as he turned off the van.

“Character?”, Josh laughed, “That thing is a fortress. It’s perfect.”

“See a little optimism can pay off.”, Hetuwa said.

They exited the van with their weapons at the ready. One by one, they entered the front gate and quietly closed it behind them.

A shed stood to the right of the Carlington House.

Richard looked at Josh and Hetuwa and nodded towards it. The two nodded and quietly moved towards it.

Josh gripped the handle of his bat and raised it, preparing for the worst. Hetuwa’s hand shook as it moved to the door handle. He closed one eye as he quickly opened the door.

Josh swung the bat in the air as he entered the shed looking around. He let out a sigh of relief as he realized the only things inside were a few boxes of supplies.

“Score.”, Josh said with a smile.

“Anything?”, Hetuwa leaned in nervously.

“Supplies.”, Josh laughed as he moved past his companion.

Richard let out a small chuckle at the two.

The three of them moved into the house. They searched through each of the rooms and was surprised by their luck. The house had been deserted by its previous owners.

Things were looking to be working out in their favor finally.

To Be Continued…

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