Doomsday

A little over an hour ago, Marion had left home. She made sure to bring her lucky revolver before getting in her car and heading out of town.

Which brings her to now, driving on the east roads towards her job at Tatum's shop. The blazing hot sun shining its heat waves down on the car made her shift a little uncomfortably but thankfully she had the air-conditioner turned on. She turned to grab a bottle of water from her bag sitting on the seat next to her and sipped from it.

Still taking sips while driving one-handed, she continued driving down the seemingly neverending road.

As Tatum's truck drove across the East Roads, Kirsten suddenly looked up at Alan.

"Y-You...u-um..."

"Hm? What's up?" asked Alan, noticing that she was trying to say something. At first, Kirsten didn't reply. But after a few moments of patience, the girl spoke up again.

"Y-You...you left that girl...at IKEA..." she mumbled, her voice full of fear and hinting at the verge of tears. Alan internally cursed.

Crap, I should have known that she'd bring it up.

Alan grabbed Kirsten's shoulders firmly, forcing her tearful gaze onto his face.

"Listen to me. What I did was completely and morally wrong, but I did it for you."

"B-But-"

"You should never have to do what I did back there. That was something I'll come to regret for the rest of my life, but I still think that it was worth it if you got to live."

Kirsten tilted her head in confusion, trying to understand his words. Alan didn't blame her, as even he didn't understand.

"My point is, always do what's right. And always do right by people. That's the Lyfeld code." Kirsten nodded in understanding, but still remained slightly apprehensive.

Tanner turned away from the other two and fished out the small note he obtained from the hospital. He read the message over and over until he finally stared up into the waning sky.

I'll find you, he pledged, clutching on to the piece of paper.

Tatum sped along through the East Roads, eventually arriving at his shop.

Eventually as the raiders continued driving, they reached the East Roads.

"Say, Chris," started Kyle. "Where're we going anyway?"

"What's that, Kyle?" responded Chris.

"I'm asking you where the rendezvous is."

"Oh, yeah. We're supposed to meet Slade just north of Tucson. An outpost near a small town called Reydon, Arizona."

"Reydon? Never heard of it. What's the story there?"

"How am I supposed to fuckin' know, Kyle? I just follow orders."

"Screw you, I'm just askin' a question. You don't have to come at me like you have a stick up your ass or something...Hey, what's that?"

Kyle leaned up in his seat to get a better look at the store that they were passing by.

"Hey, hey, hey, stop here for a sec."

Chris slowed the van to a stop as Kyle peered at the shop.

"Tatum's Food and Guns. What the hell is a shop like this doin' out in the middle of nowhere?"

"Who cares? We're gonna be late to the rendezvous if we don't get going. Are you done sightseeing?"

"Hmph, whatever."

Chris started up the van again and continued driving. About ten minutes passed before Kyle suddenly yawned and stretched.

"Let's listen to some tunes. This ride is getting dull." Kyle leaned forward and popped open the glove compartment before swiping a disc and sliding it into the van's music player.

"What did you just put into my van, Kyle?" asked Chris.

"You'll see."

In about ten seconds, loud, scratchy techno music began playing from the music player. All of the raiders immediately covered their ears from the piercing sounds of the music.

"What the hell, Kyle?!" asked Chris as he strained to cover his own ears and drive at the same time.

"Aw, come on Chris. I was just thinkin' of our new plaything back there. Aren't the kids these days listening to this stuff?" Chris immediately tried to remove the disc, only to continually miss the button until he was forced to let go of the wheel and take his eyes off of the road.

"Hey! Give that back!" Kyle reached over to snatch the disc from Chris, but Chris made sure to keep it out of range.

"No way, man. You trying to kill us all?" Kyle wasn't finished, however, and made another lunge for the disc. This time, he was successful in grabbing hold of it, but Chris still wouldn't let go. The situation turned into an all out tug-of-war between the two. None of the other raiders voiced any complaints to them whatsoever.

That is, until another car heading in the opposite direction of theirs entered their vision.

"Holy shi-!"

CRAAASH!!!

The van crashed right into the opposing vehicle, causing both cars to fly forward. Kyle was immediately thrown from the van through the front window due to not wearing his seatbelt, and Chris' head rested on the steering wheel.

Every raider was either unconscious or dead in the van, and Logan was injured due to the crash (you can specify the injuries if you want). With her consciousness barely there herself, she would have to focus and regain her bearings to realize that the van, along with the other vehicle it was now smashed against, had started smoking.

Logan had also covered her ears at the 'music', but like the others voice no complaint, probably because they couldn't hear her if she tried. She had also closed her eyes, until someone screamed and they crashed, then she blacked out.

She had been out for a minute or two before regaining enough consciousness that she could see with blurry vision.

First thing she did was look around and notice everyone was what she thought was knocked out, then she caught sight and smell of the smoke.

She started to panic, but forced herself to focus with her blurry vision and dizziness, and work on getting out.

Thankfully her seat belt was easy enough to get off, so she preceded to climb over raiders on her way to the nearest door.

The door took a bit longer, but she managed to finally get it open, before more falling than walking out, crawling a little ways away before she got to her feet and moved farther.

When she felt she was far enough away from the vehicles, she stopped and checked to see how she had been injured, or if she managed to escape injury. Her head had started throbbing, and putting a hand to her head revealed a gash and pieces of glass from the windshield. The rest of her seemed fine, except her left ankle was growing painful, and swollen. It appeared she had sprained it somehow.

Thankful she didn't seem that injured, Logan looked around her surroundings with her still blurry vision. She remembered them passing a shop, so she slowly headed in that direction, hoping she could get there before passing out.

As Logan proceeded away from the vehicle, she could hear a groan coming from nearby.

The groan came from Kyle, who was lying on the hood of the other vehicle, pressed against the cracked and mostly destroyed glass. There were visible slashes on his body from the shards, and pieces of glass were jutting from his wounds.

"Ah...shit..." he grumbled as he struggled to reach his cell phone.

"V-Voicemail....? You g-gotta be..." Kyle muttered. He didn't let that stop him from saying what he had to, however.

"S-Slade...we...c-crashed...I think Chris is...d-dead...You gotta....gotta....s-save us, bro." He said once he heard the audible beep! of the phone.

There was a pause before he continued. "I know sometimes we...ain't the best coworkers to ya...and I know I ain't been the...best little bro lately....b-but....but...shit, man...I'm bleeding out..."

Another pause. "Nevermind...there's...no time...I'm getting...weaker here..." Kyle managed a small laugh through a pained grunt.

"Not very good at this...mushy shit, so...this is goodbye...I guess..."

Finally, the smell of smoke reached Kyle's nose. He looked down to see that he was lying on the hood of a smoking vehicle, while the van was also smoking.

He didn't say anything for a few seconds, only staring at the two smoking cars. Being unable to move his body at all, he knew the end was upon him.

"Heh...they say smoking kills. I guess they were right after-"

BOOOM!!!

Kyle didn't get to finish his joke as both cars simultaneously exploded, coating the area in a fiery blaze. Thankfully, Logan was far enough away to avoid any further injury from the blast, but Kyle' body was nowhere to be seen after the explosion died down.

(You know what to do next, GG)

(To Tatum's, yes?)