Everyone watched as the armoured trucks drove out, two in total, each of them with a maximum of twelve, including the driver. Everyone was anxious however the sunlight gave them a degree of confidence.

"At this speed, I'm sure we'll make it to the Agricultural Base by sunset. As long as we keep driving at 60 miles an hour." Jackson explained to Liz who sat next to him. "If we increase the speed to 100 we'd make it by half the time but burn way more gas

He sat cleaning up his rifle, making sure it was serviced and ready for use.

"You know, I just realized something you guys. The back of our trucks are completely sun proof and the lighting in here isn't even UV. If a stiff got in during the dead of the night... We're all fucked."

"What the fuck?! Why would you think of something like that?!"

"Well, I mean it's the truth..."

"You know what, if all you're going to do is turn this entire trip into a horror story, then you better shut the fuck up, Ariana!"

"You guys cut it out. We are traveling with guests, remember?" Jackson warned before he turned towards Doctor Fletcher with an apologetic smile. "Please don't mind these idiots, Doctor Fletcher. They're used to being goofy back at camp."

"Oh no, it's fine." Doctor Fletcher replied with a warm smile. "Please don't feel the need to be anything but yourselves around me. You know, I'm not that old. I'm only in my early forties so don't start counting me in with the old geezers just yet."

"Well, if you're sure."

"Of course I'm sure. And quit with the whole Doctor Fletcher thing. You can call me Cas."

"As you wish, Cas." Jackson said with a smile.

He was about to say something else when they came to a sudden stop.

"The hell? What's going on?" He asked in confusion as he banged on the metal partition that separated them from the driver. "Is everything okay?"

"We ran out of gas!" The driver called back.

"What?! What do you mean we ran out of gas? We've only driven for nearly one hundred miles, how can we be out of gas?"

"That's strange..." Someone said. "Do you think the vehicle was compromised?"

"Rather than shoot at wild guesses, somebody should go check out what's going on with the engine and the gas tank!" Came Colonel Samson's booming voice. "Stop being idiots."

"Yes ma'am!"

Immediately at her command, two of the soldiers went out to act as the group's mechanics.

"It seems the other guys also ran out of gas." A young soldier reported back to the Colonel. "There seems to be signs of tampering on our fuel tank, though. I don't know about the other truck but I'm willing to bet the same thing has happened to them.

"That's weird. Show me." She said as she swiftly followed him outside to investigate the fuel tank as well.

She followed the young soldier outside as he left her to the truck's open engine. As she inspected the engine upon first glance it was hard to see the problem at first however, looking closer at the engine, she could see the small dentures underneath the engine carefully placed to avoid detection.

The size wouldn't have been an issue if it was one small denture but there were multiple of them, varying in size.

"What the hell? Who or what could have done this? You checked the vehicle before the trip, right?" She asked the young soldier.

"I checked for the regular problems. Given the placement of these I didn't think to check that far." He replied, his face palling as he thought of the possibility that he would be held accountable for the negligence.

"I see, naturally I'd have to reprimand you for doing a shitty job and missing this but I doubt I too would think of looking down under the engine. Be that as it may, we're still fucked. We need to keep moving and that means we need to dumb the trucks." She said with an annoyed sigh.

"But ma'am, that's over a hundred miles on foot." The soldier exclaimed.

"So? You're a soldier, aren't you?" She asked, giving him an annoyed look.

"There are also civilians among us." He mumbled in uncertainty.

"Guess for today they'll be soldiers too." She replied as she rubbed her forehead.

Without saying another word she turned back towards the back of the truck to address everyone else who was waiting patiently to know what was going on.

Opening the truck's door wide, she stood with her hands on her hips.

"Listen up everyone, we have a problem. Tank's busted. We are hundreds of miles away from any form of civilization and we can't exactly stay here as sitting ducks." She said with a sombre expression. "Thankfully it's only 8.30 right now so if we get a move on right now we may reach civilization before we lose light. And we will need all we can get.

So grab whatever you can carry without getting slowed down. We'll try to recover our trucks once we reach our first destination."

Everyone started whispering all at once. There was an air of uncertainty but everyone understood what was expected of them. They each carried a bag of essentials they would need for the day and some water.

Satisfied with the progress, Colonel Samson moved over to the civilians.

"Sorry the whole trip turned to a shit show." She says.

"It's not your fault, you couldn't have known." Cas replied with a reassuring smile.

"Actually it is my fault. I'm supposed to ensure everything is perfect for each trip so if going forward we're all fucked it's entirely my fault. She replied with an annoyed sigh.

"How about this, we get to safety and complete our journey first then you can beat yourself about it later on."

"You're right. Anyways, you guys should leave behind the stuff that weighs the most - stuff you won't need. We're walking from here on out. Hopefully we'll come across another scouting team from the other bases. If not we need to fight a secure base we can use over night," She replied as she backed off to give them space to disembark.

Everyone else was ready to head off just as she had instructed and , soon enough, so were the civilians.

"Okay people, there's a few of us so we need to move quickly if we want to cover much ground." She began as she gave them instructions on how to proceed.

"Uh- what the fuck is that?" One of the soldiers who stood outside the truck suddenly said with a shaky voice as he pointed about fifty feet away from them.

Everyone, curious because of his tone, turned to the direction he was pointing at. Right by the horizon a strange figure appeared. It looked like some sort of animal and they would have easily dismissed it as one if not for the fact that half of it's face was missing.

"Huh? What the hell?" Ariana said in confusion. "Am I seeing things? It's daytime. What the hell's going on?!"

The strange creature continued to move along for a few moments, seemingly oblivious to their presence until it turned it's mutilated head in their direction and let out a blood curdling roar.