They traveled through the day and overnight, but eventually they could go no further without new gasoline for their hoppers and a refill of drinking water. Thankfully, Khan and Helga seemed to know generally what area they were travelling to, and knew of a small town where they could refill supplies. It was midday, roasting with the sun, by the time they saw the buildings on the horizon, wavering and dancing in the heat. Bo wouldn't have traveled in the morning if she could have helped it, but she didn't know how close Clayton was to Adam or how prepared Adam would be. She needed to get to him and warn him, and if dehydrating and getting a nasty sunburn was her price, she'd gladly pay it.

As they pulled into the main street of the town, Bo noticed that no one came out to greet them. It wasn't unusual for everyone to hole up until the worst of the heat was over, but in such uncertain terrain it was rare that not even the guards would come check out visitors and make sure they didn't take what wasn't theirs.

Helga held up a hand to attract Bo and Khan's attention without saying anything. Their eyes followed where she pointed, to a building that was currently on fire. There were no walls around the town, so the smoke had been disguised by the wavering heat and the dust in the air. Yet, now that they saw the flames they noticed that the road was freshly kicked up. Tired tracks cut deep ruts into the packed earth, and the houses' walls were riddled with holes.

Bo walked her hopper close to Helga. "Militia?" she asked quietly.

Helga nodded. "Looks fresh."

"Think they're still around?" Khan said.

"I don't think so. Judging from the tire tracks, it was a whole squad," Helga replied, her voice raising to a more normal level. "We'd be able to see them if they were still around, and they'd have heard our hoppers long before we got here."

"Where are the people, do you think?" Bo asked, looking around at the destruction. Her heart plummeted, thinking about a time when her own people had been this vulnerable. She remembered vividly the terror she slept with each night, wondering if her people would be murdered in their beds.

"Hiding inside," Khan said.

"What do we do?" Bo asked, craning her neck to try and see through the opaque glass of the nearest window.

"Just get our supplies and leave," Helga said. "Adam set up a supply station here for the Forlorn, so we don't need anyone to help us."

"That's assuming the militia didn't find the stores and raid them," Khan said.

"If they did, we're in trouble," Helga said. "I don't fancy walking the rest of the way."

Khan shrugged and killed the engine of his hopper.

Helga and Bo followed him as he walked down the main road and cut between two buildings toward a warehouse that sat squat and heavy amongst the homes of the town. It was obvious that it was where supplies were kept, and Bo knew that it had to have been targeted by the militia.

Her fears were confirmed when Khan rolled the door open to an empty swathe of concrete ground. Metal shelves had been emptied and knocked over, and now lay in twisted metal piles. Dirty boots prints scuffed the floor, and the smell of gasoline from hoppers still filled the air. Bo sighed and nudged a destroyed pallet that once held supplies.

"Looks like we're walking," she said. She kept to herself that this was perhaps the worst town she'd stumbled upon. No wall, obvious supply building, and no locks or guards protecting the goods. They'd almost invited the militia to attack, and pointed out all the valuables while they were at it.

Khan gave her his lopsided smile, one eyebrow raised.

"What are you doing?" Bo asked.

"Do you really think we're this stupid?" he asked, sighing exaggeratedly.

"Uh, yeah, pretty much," Bo replied, but still following him as he swaggered over to the right hand corner of the warehouse.

"Well, it's your lucky day," Khan said. "We're actually pretty smart, and know the tricks of the trade when it comes to making sure the militia stay off our backs."

He lifted a foot and stepped down along where the wall me the concrete floor. It seemed as if he was stepping on nothing, but then Bo saw the misty wavering that came with forcefield illusions, and the sound of moving machinery filled the air. What was once concrete flickered out of view to reveal a trap door. Locks moved out of place, and the trap door slid out of view underneath the floor. A set of metal steps led into darkness.

Khan stepped down, and Bo followed behind him. As they took a few steps down the rusting metal, lights began to flickered on. Spanning the entire space of the warehouse above, was a completely new, underground room. It was filled with supplies to the point of bursting. Weapons, food, hopper parts, and more. Bo had never seen this many goods in one place before, and it made her heart skip a beat. It was definitely enough to keep a small group of bandits stocked to the point of being legitimate annoyances to the militia. Bo finally saw why the Forlorn were able to stand and fight against the militia. They were stocked with the kind of supplies that only the proper army could even dream of.

Khan jumped down the last two steps, and held out his arms to encompass the entire room. "May I introduce you to the real supply room?"

Bo let out a whistle as she craned her neck to look over all the canned food and ammunition.

Helga walked down and over to a deep tank that housed some sort of liquid. "We keep the warehouse above stocked with supplies we can do without, so that militia thinks they've done something with their time."

"They'd poke around more than we want if they didn't immediately find something worth stealing," Khan said. "So we give them just enough to make them feel special, so they'll move on to bother someone else."

"All right, I admit that it's pretty smart," Bo said.

"Thank you, thank you," Khan said, grinning and bowing.

"Enough chat," Helga said. "Get some water from the back, and I'll get the fuel."

Bo and Khan got the drinking water while Helga filled a portable container with gas from the tank. When they'd all gathered what they needed, they walked back up the steps and into the warehouse, where Khan closed the trap door again and reset the disguise forcefield.

They hauled the gas to the hoppers, and filled the tanks. Bo filled the water tanks of the hoppers with the containers from the warehouse, while Helga and Khan returned the empty containers to the warehouse. It was while Bo was finished filling the water reserves that she heard the voice.

Glancing up, she saw a woman four houses down, beckoning. Her face was ashen beneath tight braids, and her eyes were filled with fear and haste as she kept gesturing at Bo.

"What is it?" Bo asked.

"Hurry," the woman said. "There's no time. Bring those vehicles over and get inside!"

"I have to wait for—" Bo said, but the woman shook her head and suddenly ran out from the house. She came to Bo's side, gripping her arm in a vice-grip.

"No, there's no time! They're coming back!" she impressed. "They'll be here in a minute. We need to get out of plain sight."

Bo had no idea what the woman was talking about, but a lifetime spent in the dust fields had taught her to listen when others acted like this woman did. She grabbed her hopper and Helga's, walking them toward the house while the woman got Khan's. They pushed the vehicles into the main room, where Bo saw more than one family was huddle in the darkness. They moved to help Bo and the woman get the hoppers indoors, and hid them in a back room. The woman closed the door and locked it.

"My companions—" Bo began again, but the woman held a finger to her lips.

"They're leaders in the Forlorn. They can look after themselves," she said. "Please stay quiet and do what we tell you."

Bo sighed, but didn't argue.

Everyone in the main room shuffled through into a back room that was dark and had no windows that looked outside. Metal reinforced the walls, making them harder for bullets to pierce, and supplies were stacked for a prolonged stay. Three old-fashioned television sets sat against one wall, showing on split screens different parts of the town, and one that faced the dust field in the direction of the city. This was where they must have seen the danger the woman had warned Bo of. Clouds of dust rose from a group of men on hoppers, and they were close to the town.

"Militia," the woman explained. "They just came, but sometimes they come back to make sure they didn't leave anything behind."

Bo watched as the hoppers arrived in the town, and the men dismounted and peered around through their goggles.

The cameras must have come equipped with speakers, as soon Bo could hear what the men were saying as they milled around their hoppers.

"Why are we always stuck with these kinds of jobs?" one of them said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Cuz we're new recruits," another said.

"More like we're the ones without money backing us," another said.

The first man rolled his shoulders and pointed in the direction of the warehouse. "It's that way."

"What's even the point of doing this?"

"We need to send a message to Adam and the Forlorn. Torching their warehouse will show them we're not messing around. At least, that's what Lieutenant Aston says."

Bo felt the blood drain from her face.

Aston.

He was alive, and he still wanted revenge on Adam.

---

A/N: Woah, what's this? Two chapters in one week? ;D