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@Trainerblue192@Kirah The traffic would still be pretty congested but they would be able to make progress down the road now, Hermes would be able to see several more Blackhawks flying overhead. Mandy would see a few MRAPs as well as a few APC's driving through several intersections being escorted by a number of Humvees to the military and national guard had started to arrive. Mandy and Hermes would be able to make it back to Mandy's home now to the front door was closed and locked.

@Carlyle Hannah had gone to her parents apartment she was living in the apartment across from Gladys' she closed and locked the door, Isaac made his way into Gladys' apartment as well to. "Do you have a tv remote somewhere?" Isaac asked the elderly woman as she turned to look at him and nodded. "It's on the bookshelf over there." Gladys said to him, Isaac nodded as he went over and grabbed the remote he turned the tv on to the news station. Gladys took one of the cookies and took a bite out of it as she turned to Kali she shook her head slightly. "I haven't honestly." She said, on the news they were in the middle of a broadcast. "The military have now just arrived in the city and have established a location in Central Park, we'll report more on the story as it develops." The new anchor said as it went to a commercial break.

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Flynn quickly backed up he grabbed the tire iron that he had again in his hand just in case Gus quickly backed up as well to. "What the fuck she was dead man!" Gus yelled loudly as he backed up towards a desk, Verity would be able to find a tool box nearby containing a set of screwdrivers, hammers, and nails. The zombie had it's cloudy looking eyes set on Gus and started to shamble it's way towards him, Gus started to freak out as he grabbed the keyboard of the computer and tried to hit the zombie with it. "Get away!" Gus yelled, Flynn didnt want to see his friend get hurt and he ran forward kicking the zombie in the legs causing it to tumble to the ground.

Flynn turned to Verity getting an idea. "I'll lure it out into the garage itself, just hold the door open and close it right away when I get back." Flynn suggested, the zombie slowly started to shamble back to it's legs again letting out a growling sound it's attention now focused on Flynn as he made his way towards the door hitting the tire iron on several things to keep it's attention on him. "Over here!" Flynn yelled as he slowly made his way into the garage floor itself. Once the zombie was a good ways in Flynn would kick the zombie in the legs again and made a beeline towards the offices and waiting area again.

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"Yeah maybe, the few we encountered had bites in areas where you'd bleed out from the neck from and they were still walking." Kaitlyn said as she made her way back into the car and looked back at Juniper. "But hurry up if your getting anything I want to get out of here before that thing has its attention back on us." Kaitlyn suggested to Juniper as she looked at Waverly and pulled out her phone handing it to her and turning on the GPS app on it.

"Here put in the address." She suggested as she looked over at the zombie it's attention was still luckily on the cybertruck with it's alarm still blarring very loud. "Once he's in we can get out of here." Kaitlyn said as she turned the car on waiting for Juniper to get into her car.

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Sure enough their fears were recognized when the woman, clearly dead, began moving around. Verity glanced at the toolbox and grabbed a hammer, not wanting to be without protection this time. Verity looked at Gus as the man yelled in fear. Now was not the time to panic.

Flynn's idea was stupid, but what choice did they have other than attacking her again? Verity nodded and waited as Flynn baited the woman outside. Verity ran to the door and waited. As Flynn ran back, Verity clutched the hammer tighter. As soon as Flynn was inside, Verity would slam the door shut and lock it.

She hoped the dead woman was to dumb to know how to unlock a door.

Mandy sighed relieved when she pulled into the driveway. She grabbed the cat carrier backpack, wishing she had left the cat at home, but glad that she knew it was safe.

At the door, she double-checked her car was locked when Hermes got out and then unlocked the house door. She waved Hermes in and locked it behind him. She flashed the hall light switch several times—her way of shouting that she was home for her parents. They would either be in the living room or kitchen. She headed to the kitchen first.

In the kitchen, she scrubbed her hands for almost two minutes. Mentally she went over what they needed to have on hand. They'd need bug-out bags packed and ready. She wasn't the type that thought about that a lot, but she knew it was something to pack. They had an emergency bin for natural disasters and terrorism.

Mandy didn't remember 2001, but she knew that her dad had spent some time after making sure they'd have something. There was no radio. That relied on hearing and no one in the house could. She frowned and dried her hands. Then pulled out a yellow memo pad and wrote: Bug out bag. She looked at her cousin.

"What do we need to pack?" She didn't know how long they would be able to use the car. With traffic, it was already making it impossible. Leaving the city would be nearly impossible soon, at least via a car.

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Kali was disappointed with Gladys' response, and simply nodded back at her neighbor. She had expected her reply, but a part of Kali had hoped that Gladys would've said otherwise. The city was falling into chaos, and not knowing whether Liana was safe or not began to drive a pit in her stomach. Pulling out her phone from her purse, Kali pushed a few buttons and opened the contact app. "I'm going to try to see if I can get a hold of her. Hopefully the lines are still working."

Waiting with abated breath, Kali listened for the dial tone to go through. "C'mon, Liana, pick up the phone." She uttered to herself as the phone rang, knowing the likelihood of the call getting through was likely slim if not impossible. To her surprise, however, Liana—or someone else—had picked up on the other end of the line. A deluge of worriedness soon poured out of her mouth, asking a million questions from the get-go.

"Liana? Are you okay? Where are you right now?" Kali rapidly asked. "No one bit you, right?"

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Everything felt so surreal. The Blackhawks, the Vehicles, the traffic was about the only normal bit of it that he'd seen. It felt like an eternity in the car, waiting and wading through a slug of cars until they'd finally made it to Mandy's place. The front door was locked, and a part of him was desperately trying to recall if they had locked it or not when they left. Did something happen? Were his aunt and uncle ok? He quickly stepped into the apartment behind Mandy, following her as she flickered lights and they began to search for the family. He knew they were deaf, that calling out wasn't something they'd do nor having a radio play like back at his place. But given everything that had happened, the silence was eerie.

Hermes began to sign to his cousin, trying to think of what to get. ”I have some supplies at my place. Ready made kits with bandages and other things to help survive.” Hed debated in letting her know one of those items was a gun, but he didn't want her to worry or panic on as to why he had it. ”I'd offer a ride on my Vespa but it's back at school. And…we don't all fit on it. But it's easier to navigate traffic with it.”

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Location: NYC, Apartment Garage
Skills: N/A

Juniper stared at her for a few moments. How could she not want to know? How could she face horrors like this and not want to analyze them? How else were they supposed to survive? They needed to know everything, and she didn't even want to call it what it was? He could feel all the thoughts clawing at his brain again when she kept speaking.

"Don't--don't you want to--no, yeah that's... fair, actually." Juniper said. Maybe she was right. He got into the backseat of the car, carefully taking off his backpack and sitting it in his lap, looking up at the two girls. "Thank you, again," He said, hoping he hadn't made it too awkward by mentioning the zombies. His brain was still replaying what the stumbledly fellow had been doing, looking for signs of what he was taught about zombies. He kept trying to shut down the thoughts. They kept returning. He buckled up and gave a thumbs up to the one who was driving to let her know he was ready, taking one last look back at his apartment, wondering about life in the world to come.

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As soon as this new stranger got into the car, Waverley followed suit - and this time, she got to stay in the car. She immediately propped her foot onto the dashboard in what seemed to be her natural passenger seat position. She took Kaitlyn's phone as it was offered to her, flicking her way over to her maps app. Her fingers tapped on the screen for a few seconds, before the GPS' automated voice came on over the speakers, announcing its destination as, Beyond the Veil.

"Here's the other thing," Waverley began as soon as they were all in the car. "If we decide they're zombies, we're pretty much saying that at some point, we're going to have to kill them. So, we need to be one hundred percent sure. But, Kaitlyn brings up a good point: a lot of them seem like they'd be dead if they weren't zombies, so..." Waverley pulled her backpack up from the ground, unzipping it. She pulled out a hunk of metal the size of a short sword - it appeared to be the armrest, unscrewed and stolen from a park bench by some vandal. Some punkish, purple-haired vandal, most likely. "If we do need to kill some zombies, I have this." Then, offhandedly, she added, "Oh, and the handgun in my pants."

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@Trainerblue192@Kirah Mandy's father entered the kitchen shortly after Mandy had flickered the lights on and off, he looked at Hermes and then over at Mandy. "Are you okay?" He signed to the both of them as he watched Mandy getting some bug out bags wondering why she was doing that. "What happened out there?" He signed again with a concerned look on his face, he didn't have the tv on at the moment and couldn't see what was being captioned on the screen for any updates.

@Carlyle Liana picked up the phone hearing Kali's voice on the other end she sounded relived. "I'm still at work at the moment, people are leaving whats going on?" She asked what sounded like Liana was getting ready to leave as well to. "And no I wasn't bit why?" She asked as Liana was getting ready to leave now. "I should be back at the apartment in a few minutes, are things okay over there?" She asked Kali, she would be able to see on the news and hear. "The military is ordering people to evacuate certain areas of the city, if you are in the areas that are marked for evacuation please leave the city as soon as you can." The news reporter said it happened to be the part of the city where they were located.

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Flynn quickly made his way back into the lobby area just as Verity closed the door and locked it, he could hear loud banging on the other end and the relentless sound of growls coming from the other end. "Are you two okay?" Flynn asked looking at Verity and then over at Gus as he nodded slightly. "Yeah i'm okay.." Gus said as he went over and sat down on one of the chairs, Flynn didn't trust that the door would hold, he grabbed another spare chair and jammed it against the door nob and the floor tilting it slightly so that it would be firmly wedged between the floor and door.

Flynn turned to look at the tv that was there. "Does that tv work?" Flynn asked Gus as he nodded slightly and made his way over to his desk opening up a drawer and tossed Flynn the remote which he caught easily and started to play. "The military is ordering people to evacuate certain areas of the city, if you are in the areas that are marked for evacuation please leave the city as soon as you can." The reporter said as they showed a map of the city where the areas that were marked for evacuation they were in one of the affected areas.

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Kaitlyn nodded once everyone was inside the car now she turned and started to drive out of the parking garage, their zombie friend started to get their attention now and it started to charge after the car. However Kaitlyn was driving the car faster and the zombie was slowly being left behind in the parking garage. Kaitlyn looked at Waverly seeing her propping her legs on the dashboard, normally she would have told someone to not do that but right now things were crazy.

"Well if they have wounds that a normal person would be dead from we should consider them a zombie. And if they are bit we avoid them, also we should only trust ourselves." Kaitlyn suggested as she drove as she turned on the radio music started to play, but she quickly switched to a news radio station but sadly there wasn't any news either at the moment.

"Dad" Relief washed through Mandy. Her dad was okay. Nothing had happened here while they were gone. She hugged him tightly. That prevented her from answering him for a moment, but that was okay. Hugging her dad was worth it. Mandy feared for a moment as she did that this might be her last hug with him. Things were already crazy, it wasn't going to get better any time soon. Finally she released him and stepped back. Mandy raised her hands and started signing quickly. Faster than Hermes could probably follow.

"Well we left here and everything was wild already. There were cops and helicopters. Hermes said on the radio they warned to avoid being bit! Yes, bit, by people. Then we got to Hannah's apartment complex and there was this old man on the street. He had been hit by a car. His wife didn't know what to do. So we called 911 and they told us to stay away if he had been bit. He had been. By some homeless man. An ambulance and some cops showed up. While that was happening some kid attacked and I was attacked by birds for some reason. Hannah's neighbor got put in the ambulance and the kid was put in the police car. The two of us went to leave and some other kid was trying to steal my car. The cops stopped him and we drove him. The traffic is getting crazy and I don't know what to do other than prepare for the worst."

She slowed down taking a breath. ASL was a very visual language so the parts that would be easiest to understand were about the attacks.

"Anyway, we are planning what to pack now. I don't know if we can drive out of town or what. But we have to be ready to move if it gets worse. I think for now staying inside is the best plan." She was signing slower now so Hermes could follow along easier. "I've got my vet tech things. That's a lot of medical supplies. We've got the usual emergency kit. Now we just need to make it all travel sized. At least I got a backpack for the kitten so we don't have to worry about him." Though that did mean she would have to carry the cat and whatever was her share of supplies if they left the house.

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Verity took some deep breaths in once the door was firmly closed and whatever that...thing was stayed outside. She could hear it banging on the door and growling. Whatever was happening was infecting the dead. Or at the very least it was making them appear dead. "Yeah, I'm okay." Okay was a loaded word though.

Verity walked over and watched the TV, listening to the news reports. A military evacuation. This was now more than some worry about a virus. This was intense. "That's us. We need to leave. Is there a car we can take? I don't feel comfortable leaving on foot with that...thing out there. Who knows how many more there are." Her mind raced to the many others in the city. Surely that was going to cause more issues. And the police were still coming here. "The paramedics are still on their way too."

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Hermes watched as Mandy and her father began to speak. He caught the first sentence but then after that it was too much to follow. Too much of a blur. It showcased just how far he was from being able to fully speak them. Watching it it made him wonder how often they slowed down for him when speaking or watching him speak. Wondering if he was too slow like a speaking person with a speech impediment but instead it was his hands unable to find the right words to say. He didn't say anything though, he let them talk.

Hermes leaned against the kitchen counter watching as his cousin began to slow down her signage. It hurt a little, but he understood. ”We have food, medicine, a cat, shelter, and weaponry if needed. We should be safe for now if things get too crazy. But here's hoping that they don't.” He tried to sign faster, but his hands stumbled over the words.

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A wave of relief washed over Kali as Liana answered that she was fine. "You need to get home as fast as you can. Or-or, I don't know, hunker down so Isaac and I can come get you." Kali worriedly responded. "The city isn't safe. People are attacking each other everywhere. They had to take Jeff and Gladys' husband to the hospital. The bite—they bit them, Liana."

Holding the phone up with her shoulder, Kali turned her attention to the on-going news report. "They're calling for evacuation." She explained to Liana. "We're-we're in one of the evacuation zones on their map. We'll try to get to you, okay? I'll grab some supplies from our apartment before we leave. Just stay safe for me, alright?"

Grabbing her purse, Kali dug inside for her apartment keys. There was no time to waste.

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Waveley's eyes were glued on the radio as Kaitlyn leaned over to cycle through channels, starting with music, only to then skip over a few dead channels to instead get to a news station. Waverley chewed the inside of her cheek, waiting for some sort of useful tidbit to come from the news, but they got nothing. Waverley let it go for a few more seconds, before leaning in herself.

"Mind if I just..." Waverley's words trailed off as she reached her hand to the dial, flicking back to one of the dead channels. The sound of static filled the air as she eyed the frequency. She pulled out her phone, balancing it on her leg as she tapped in the number into her phone, lips subtly mouthing '102.2' as she typed it in in her phone. It'd be useful to have - she didn't want to have to waste precious time searching for an open frequency once she had her radio equipment. The quicker she could tell her listeners everything she knew about what was happening, the better. With a explantionless, "Sorry," she turned the dial back to the music that'd been playing before.

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Location: NYC, Apartment Garage
Skills: N/A

Juniper nodded, staying quiet as the two girls were discussing whether or not these incidents were zombies. They definitely were, at least in Juniper's mind. He still felt awkward about how he'd been the one bringing it up, maybe he wasn't supposed to talk about it so much now that it wasn't a hypothetical. In his mind he was sorting through everything his extended family had taught him about zombies, for the first time questioning, just for a moment, whether it was all accurate. What Kaitlyn said about only being able to trust themselves, that's what he knew for sure, and not much more. At least someone had weapons if they did run into more zombies.

He got out his phone, sending a short text to his mother, asking if she and the rest of his family were okay, then glancing back up at the others in the car, wondering what Waverly had been doing. "What was that?" He asked, curious.

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@Trainerblue192@Kirah Mandy's father watched as his daughter signed everything that has happened since they had left their apartment, everything seemed to be going to hell rather quickly. He looked to his nephew as he signed back picking up what he was saying as well to, they were in the middle of the largest city in the world and he thought that saying in the city was a bad idea. "I think we should pack up and leave as soon as we can, if things get to bad they'll most likely isolate Manhattan and we don't want to be here when they do that." He suggested.

@Carlyle Liana shifted slightly as she listened to Kali on the other end of the phone as she looked over at the tv on her end and turned it up, seeing that it was true. "Okay i'll hunker down here, everyone else seems to be leaving here just come here as soon as you can and call every few minutes if you have to. And i'll grab whatever food and supplies here on my end." Liana said to Kali. Issac got up from where he had been sitting and looked over at Kali still on the phone. "Is everything okay?" He ended up asking her.

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Gus looked at the door for a moment, he flinched slightly every time the zombie banged on the door harder than the last, it wasnt going to hold, but it was secured enough for now. "Yeah there are a few cars in the backyard that we were working on. The customers might be pissed if we take anyone of them." Gus warned Flynn rolled his eyes slightly, the city was going to hell very quickly and the customers aren't even here. "Well they aren't here right now. And if they wanted their ride back they would have been here by now." Flynn said shaking his head slightly.

Gus nodded slightly as he grabbed a few keys from a nearby locked cabinet where he held all of they keys and key fobs that the cars were being worked on. He tossed the large ring of car keys and fobs to Verity as he made his way towards the back door of the building that led into the backyard of the car shop, some were still being worked on, while others looked fine. "Pick one and we can get the hell out of here." Flynn said as he made it out onto the yard itself and started to look around, there wasn't a sign of any zombies yet.

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Kaitlyn continued to switch through the radio stations, some were dead, while others were still playing music, while a few of them were playing the national emergency message. They weren't getting anything which made her annoyed as she continued to follow the directions that were given to her by her phone. She was more focused on getting to their location, eventually they were finally at the location that Waverly had given them.

"Is this the place?" Kaitlyn asked looking over at Waverly as she drove the car over towards the parking lot, she noticed a large number of military vehicles were driving through the streets now. "Can you like text your friends or whatever and see if they are inside?" Kaitlyn asked Waverly she didn't want to go inside in case there were more infected.

Mandy placed her hands gently on her cousin's. "Slow and clear is better than fast." She smiled. "Okay," She looked between her dad and cousin. "We should pack up my car and leave then. We can go to Hermes' house get Auntie and Nana, as well as his things from there. Then we will leave the city.

"Please let mom know." Mandy told her dad. "Get your things together. I don't know when we'd get back here." The car would be packed, and only Mandy's car as an SUV could hold everyone, they'd have to be friendly with each other.

”Text your mom and let her know we will come get her and Nana. Can you also find out where we should go?" Mandy had no idea where to even look for that information.

”I'll get my vet tech bag." She said heading to her room. Mandy also would have to gather all the stuff for the cat. Luckily she had already finished packing for school before it was canceled when everything started going wrong.

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"I'll try to get there as soon as I can." Kali replied, thankful that Liana was taking her advice. She just hoped that her roommate would be able to stay safe long enough for them to reach her place of work. "And I'll keep calling as long as I can. Just find somewhere to hide until we get there."

A piece of Kali didn't want to hang up the phone; the uncertainty of the situation eating away at her gut. Hearing Liana's voice was a lifeline: a way of knowing she was okay. Nonetheless, the need to gather supplies was still important, which would allow them to evacuate in a timely manner, and reach her roommate.

With a rather emotional farewell, Kali ended the call and turned to Isaac. "Isaac, I need your help." Kali asked, producing her apartment key from her purse. "They're saying we need to evacuate. My roommate is safe, but I need your help in getting us—and her—out of here."

"I'm going to go grab some things that we need from my apartment. Food, some clothes and other things." Kali explained to her boss. "Can you help Gladys? The faster we're out of here, the better."

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Verity rolled her eyes. Gus had a heart, it seemed, but that needed to go out the window. They were in a life-or-death situation. Or rather a life-and-maybe-death since the dead seemed to be coming back alive. She had never been a fan of horror movies because people that looked like her tended to never survive them but she knew of them. Zombie movies weren't real, right?

Verity followed Flynn outside, catching the fobs tossed to her. She picked the nicest lookig one and began clicking the lock button, hoping to find the car it belonged to. "Any idea where we go from here? I imagine outside city limits but who
sto say it's not like this elsewhere?" They should also look for protection. She doubted they would be the only ones leaving and, given how people handled crises, she didn't want to be without something to defend herself.

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There was a pang of embarrassment as his cousin told him that slower was better. But then…how could he get better? He could hardly catch the words she signed earlier and now he worried he was slowing everything down. He took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly. It was fine. It'd be fine. His uncle wanted to evacuate. Hermes didn't think that was a good idea. Between the military, the traffic, and how badly people were driving today he didn't think it was wise. They'd sooner run out of gas parked in traffic than actually leave the city. But…Quarantined here could be bad as well. ”Yeah…I'll text her.” He signed back as he leaned against the counter again.

Hermes pulled out his phone, shooting his mom a text. ”Hey ma, at Mandy’s still but are thinking about evacuating the city. We are going to get you and Nana and a few other things then we are all outta here ok? Pack up, stay safe, see you soon. Love you ❤️” He opened up his Waze app, typing in his address to find the best way to get to his place. Then from her place another direction leading them out. It seemed there would be a lot of back roads taking him through the long way around but the traffic was much clearer than the main streets others were using so it'd be safer for them at least. ”Found directions both to Ma's and out of here. It'll take us the backroads but much less traffic. So I think it's the best shot no?”

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@Trainerblue192@Kirah Hermes would get a reply back from Hermes mother. "Is everything okay? And please be safe i'll see you when you get here. <3" Was what the text said, Mandy's father would nod as he started to head upstairs to get Mandy's mother, she was in the bedroom folding up some laundry. "Pack up what you can we are leaving." He signed to her, she looked at him with a confused look but nodded slightly as she grabbed a duffle bag packing up some clothes. He would head back down stairs and grabbed a few bags filling them with whatever canned food there was in the house. As well as what bottled water that they had as well to. The kitten was happily purring and rubbing up against Hermes' legs clearly wanting attention and pets.

@Carlyle Isaac looked over at Kali and nodded towards her. "Yeah lets get going, i'd rather not be in the city when things start to get worse." He said as he looked over towards Gladys who looked at them both and shook her head slightly. "You two go ahead, I want to stay here where it's safe. And my husband is still there I don't want to leave him." Gladys said to Kali, as Isaac looked at her to see what she wanted to do. He didn't want to force anyone to leave if they didn't want to really either, Gladys made her way over towards her closet and pulled out a hunting rifle and a box of ammo for it handing it over to Isaac. "My husband hasn't used it in a long time it'll be in better hands." She said to Isaac. "Thank you." He said to her before turning to Kali. "The sooner we get out of the city the better, people will be wanting to get out as soon as possible to." He told her.

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Flynn thought for a moment as he looked around the area. "We should go somewhere more rural where there are less people." Flynn suggested as Gus found a crowbar nearby that was in a metal barrel and grabbed it. "That works for me." Gus said, they did need protection, and more supplies as well to but that would probably be something that they would do later. The keyfob that Verity found the lights would light up and a beeping sound would come from a modified MRAP. It looked like it had seen better days however it was modified to have electronic locks like most cars do.

"She'll need to fueled up, but she'll be good to get us out of the city." Gus said as he made his way over towards a nearby shed as he looked at Verity. "Mind helping me getting a few gas cannisters?" He asked her, then there was a sound of something crashing Flynn turned around to look at and see three infected were shambling through the yard probably lured to it when they heard the MRAP's beep. "I'll keep them distracted." Flynn said as he banged his tire iron on a hood of a nearby wreck which got their attention.