((ahk! Got busy at work all of a sudden. I'll respond to this via phone.))
((duh-duh-duh-DUH Triumphant return!))

Lixi watched as Adja and Jason climbed in the back, then gestured toward the drivers seat when she noticed Martin's gaze wander in her direction. "You should probably still drive. You know the lay of the land best m'dear." She clambered into the passenger seat, hoping the cutesy bit at the end would hide the nervousness in her voice. The zombies wouldn't pose much of a problem this far out of town, but if they had to head in to find this author or the temple, it could get hairy.

They drove on for a little while without so much as a glimpse of anyone, dead or alive, but the closer they drew to the city, the deeper the red hue got. At one point she noticed a dark smear on the road that puddled at fairly regular intervals, as though someone had been bleeding profusely from one leg as they walked up the road. Wonder if they were still alive at the time? Moments after the thought was through her mind, she got her answer. A reanimated corpse stood in front of them on the road, straddling the still corpse of a man with one totally blood soaked pant leg. Even in the early morning light Lixi could see that the man was missing a large chunk of both his leg and pants up near the hip. Guess 'were' is the key term in all this.

"Run them both over... try to hit the one on the grounds head with the wheels. He'll be getting up soon enough. Best just to deal with it now. Please Martin... just run them both down." She looked straight ahead as she said it, her tone cold, totally void of any emotion, and her stare was vacant and empty.

Jason sat in the back with his laptop already out and whiring away on his lap all the while. He was to numb after all they'd seen the last few days to care anymore. This was his life now, and he accepted it. All that mattered to him now was finding a signal so he could get the clues to start him on his path to finding Sophia.


****

Arminos lead Sophia behind him, lightly pulling her along the hand he nearly forcibly held onto. The pitch black cave they wandered now only by touching the various walls. He counted the number of turns and coridoors they passed by, hoping he'd kept track correctly, and that he remembered Joel'd instructions for navigating the Labyrinth correctly.

Off in the distance a soft noise could be heard. Like something large, roughly the size of a human, scuffling about in the dark... but higher up... as though it came from the cieling.