![[98 Epigraphs#023]] # Chapter 23 “Looks like it’s going southwest.” Darwin Cleft, of house Caelos said to Alaina. He was using his power of bird eye view, which made no sense to Alaina, but it was trustworthy. She pulled out a pair of binoculars, not that she doubted Darwin, but to see herself. *Man, that is a good sign.* She and the others had been trapped in Augusta for over a week. “We might be able to head back east.” Alaina said, tossing the binoculars over to Holly Iverson. She was a child of house Navitor, and had been referencing maps. “Yeah, we really have two options, waiting it out or going through.” Holly said, tossing the binoculars backwards, into the hands of Rhett. Rose removed her head from his shoulder, and he had a turn with them. “Or through.” Rose said, shrugging. “Violently or silently somehow.” Augusta was 2 hours away from Athens, but it would take much longer for them to get back. Alaina knew Jack would have sent a few search parties out, but they had been forced southeast, on their second week of hunting. *At least we’ve been successful. Gods, it’s going to take a long time to get back.* Kudzu had already begun to eat at houses when they’d left Costco, it was bound to cover roads soon. Not to mention the constant hazard of fallen trees. It made Alaina realize the importance of road clearing companies. “Can slackjaws swim?” Holly asked, pulling out a new map. She sat it on the rough concrete atop the building they were on. “Don't think so, no.” Rose replied, sitting the binoculars on the ground. She took Rhett’s hand once more and laid her head on his shoulder. “How come?” Alaina asked, turning to Holly. Holly cleared her throat, pointing at her map. *Rivers?* “If we were to head north a long ways, we could cross the Savannah River. Also, it would be nice to get some fish. Venison and canned goods get old.” “Honestly, sounds pretty solid to me.” Darwin said, sitting down, seemingly exhausted and pained from his powers. Violet came forward, helping him sit up, and moved his back against a wall. Rhett nodded, “Let’s wait out the horde then, at least another day.” After the rest agreed, Alaina grew bored. “There are a few stragglers still in the city, but I think we can raid awhile. I need to stretch my legs.” “I’m game.” Rhett said, standing, much to Rose’s dismay. Alaina grabbed her day bag, and made her way down the fire escape, and onto the ground. She had to avert her eyes from the solar panels on the trucks, angled to get sunlight. They covered the beds and cam of two different trucks, but powered the four large chest freezers they hauled. Alaina shivered, considering the amount of meat they had in those freezers. Over three thousand pounds, 5 Elk, 16 deer. *I’m going to need a long shower when I get home. Everything smells like iron and meat.* Three thousand pounds still wouldn’t go very far, maybe a month if they were modest about eating. Which was about the same as what they’d get from the stockpile they had been burning through. 9 elk per month would feed the group quite well. Especially if they were able to spread out and hunt en masse. “We probably need to split up,” Rhett said, Rose walking to Alaina. “I’m down. I’ll take Rose and Holly,” Alaina replied. Violet gave a double thumbs up, smiling broadly. Alaina stifled a laugh, Violet had a crush on Darwin. Rose, Alaina, and Holly went to the southeast, while Rhett, Violet, and Darwin went northeast. The streets were littered in trash, abandoned cars, and tread marks. Augusta was larger than Athens, but there was a distinct lack of hospitals, just rubble in their places. The one intact hospital they’d observed from the rooftop where they stayed, was Patrick memorial hospital, with a crater in the side of it. “What the hell happened here?” Rose asked aloud, clearing an alleyway. “I’m not sure. It looks like Secession War photos. Maybe a final conflict just before the fall?” Holly commented, taking the next corner. “Or the old movies and TV shows. Deliberate in order to stop the spread.” Alaina said, recalling the things she used to watch with her grandparents. “Gods, that’s horrible, but it makes sense I suppose. At least to normie mortals.” Holly replied, taking the first step outside the alley. One slackjaw was at the bottom, but didn’t seem to notice them. Alaina kicked in the glass door, which shattered on impact with a brick. The halls had a dust on them, and as the girls walked, it began to fill the air. They took different halls, Alaina was the first up the stairs to the second floor. She knew it was 7 floors, based upon the elevator buttons, but took it slow. Anything could prove helpful. “Score.” Alaina said, finding a distribution station. It had fancy air tubes dispersed throughout the hospital. It was common to have several of these, dispersed on each floor in order to distribute the medications. *Convenient.* First thing she opened was a locked cabinet labeled for Ibuprofen and Naproxen sodium. It wasn’t full, but would satisfy the whole group for the next quarter. The cabinets labeled for everything high-powered, and steroids, were completely depleted. *A sign of life at least.* One of the few untouched shelves was everything relating to pregnancy. Alaina wanted to have Hunter’s kids one day, and was sure other people would eventually want kids of their own. She grabbed as much formula as she could, along with vitamins and antibiotics. She stuffed several boxes of bandages into her bag, then moved on to the rest of the floor. The entire place felt weird, without the normal sterile feel and smell of hospitals pre fall. It didn't give Alaina the feeling of dread she was accustomed to. Growing up, she’d always hated hospitals, felt like they were only for the cancerous and dying. Also, the fact the medical industry made money off of treating suffering didn't sit right with her. “Oh fuck,” she gasped, slipping to the ground and scrambling backwards. *That’s why this place is still standing.* Alaina rushed down the stairs again, finding Holly and Rose in the floor below. “Alaina, you alright?” Holly asked, rushing to her side. “Live, bomb.” She said between gasps. Rose’s eyes widened. “You mean…” “Yeah. I do. Only reason this place is still here, I think.” “Sounds like a rush job to me.” Holly said, then took the stairs Alaina fled through. *I guess if it survived this long.* She and Rose both made their way up the stairs. The bomb itself was not a bomb, more like a missile. It was a miracle it was still stable after four months of sitting in the dilapidated building. They continued on the next floor, staying a good ways away from the north side of the building. “Alaina, got baby fever?” Rose laughed, poking around her bag. “Maybe I do.” Alaina dumped two handfuls of antibiotics into the bag, then more acetaminophen than she’d ever seen in one place. “Rose, you’re one to talk. You grabbed like thirty baby bottles. And fucking diapers,” Holly laughed. Rose’s face turned deep red, and Alaina saw the duffle bag overflowing. “Both you girls need to get married. There’s no parents to object, and I don't care how long you’ve known your men. There are not a lot of men to choose from.” “I’m waiting on Hunter. I love him, but it’s ultimately on him.” Alaina said, opening some upper glass cabinets. “Dude, this is the crazy concentrated formula stuff.” “I’m also waiting on Rhett. I think he feels weird that there’s an age gap, and I’m recently 18.” Rose said, grabbing several bottles of the concentrated formula. A new brand, Alaina had begun seeing soon before the fall. It was supposedly enough for an entire month, and was super expensive. Not like that mattered anymore. “Guess those are valid concerns. It’d be worse if we were back in the 20s. They’d debated about raising the voting age to 21.” Alaina laughed, and finding very little in the way of bandages, she grabbed three roles of duct tape, and some restraints. “Oh shit, I hadn’t even thought of tourniquets till now.” Holly said, finding several in a pile under a sink. “That’s probably something we need for, like, gunshots and bites from those damn Maws.” Rose said, helping bring more to Holly's bag. “Do we ought to make a run to the trucks? We need more bags I think.” “That’d probably be wise. I kinda wanna clear this place first, before we leave though. Plus we have a little bit of room.” Alaina said, reorganizing her backpack and small duffle. She saved herself half a bag worth of room. The rest of the building was much the same, with a large amount of amphetamines on the sixth floor. Alaina was able to find various sleeping medications, which were in very short supply back home. After clearing the building, they headed west to the trucks. Before loading them up, a loud explosion rocked the ground. Alaina could feel it in her chest. The snow was still falling, and it was beginning to get dark out. “Where are the guys and Violet?” Rose hissed, throwing bags into trucks. “They’re not here.” Holly said, pointing to the building, if the guys were there, they would have looked over. “The horde is starting to turn.” Rose said, pointing. She opened the driver's side of the truck she’d loaded, and cranked it up. “I'm gonna find the guys. Y’all load up the other truck. We need to move.” Rose was right. The horde had only just left the city. *So we have, like, half an hour till they are all here.* “Shit.” Alaina took off after Rose, intent on helping the guys and violet load everything they found up. The snowfall wasn’t intolerably heavy, and in fact was quite pleasant, all things considered. She turned a hard right, onto Pleasant Home road, then another right onto Crane Ferry road. The next turn was a left onto Warren Road, which spit her out onto Washington Road. *Thank the gods.* Rose pulled up to the guys, and Alaina pulled up behind. “The hospital blew up.” Alaina said, helping Violet load the truck. “The fuck?” Rhett asked, stopping mid-stride. “There was an undetonated missile or rocket type thing in the hospital. That’s gotta be what it was.” Holly said, hopping back into Rose’s truck. “Well, we best be heading north then.” Darwin said, helping Violet into Alaina's truck. *I see what you did there. Slick.* Now Violet and Darwin were together, as were Rhett and Rose. It was endearing, honestly, to see Violet so giddy. Her face was almost perpetually blushing. “Need to go north on SC 28 North.” Holly said to Alaina out the window. “To McCormick.” Rose started, followed by Alaina. They made several random feeling turns but emerged into SC 28. Half the road had been covered up by Kudzu, the rest littered with abandoned cars and trucks. “What the hell are we gonna do?” Violet asked. “We can't just drive over the Savannah River.” “Yeah I've got no idea. Holly is the travel genius.” Darwin said, “we’ll find a way. If we go far enough north I think we can head back closer to Washington.” “I just hope any rescue teams are safe.” Alaina said, releasing breath she’d been holding too long. “You know Jack sent some.” “He probably came himself. It’s been a week since we were supposed to be back, he probably brought Hunter too.” Violet chuckled. “Bet you’ll be happy to see him” “Fuck yeah I will. I’ll probably force him to marry me.” *Gods I miss you, Hunter.* Darwin laughed out loud. “It is a new world. Anything is possible.” A tree blocked the way a half mile up, so Alaina just went off-road around it. *Gods we’ll only have a day to charge the trucks.* The horde would be able to follow them, especially as they had to stop for the night a short while later. *They'll be on us by morning.* Alaina tried to squash the negative voice in her head, but it was rather tempting to listen to. Like rain on a tin roof.