They reached the edge of the bushlands on a hot mid-afternoon, the sun blazing down. No matter the fact that it had been freezing earlier that morning, all three of them felt like they had walked into the middle of summer. Nobody was wearing their winter gear now, their coats either tucked into their bags or slung over their elbows. It was sweltering.

"We're almost there, I think." Marissa said after taking a huge sip from her water bottle. She blew a raspberry as she tried to cool her face with her hand.

"Good. I think I might be melting." Ellie Rae was also fanning her face from the heat, her usually pale complexion turning a shade of red as she got sunburned. Marissa thought to herself that they should probably look into finding some hats.

"Where are we?" Lincoln said suddenly, stopping in his tracks. Marissa stopped as well. She had never been here before. "Dude? Where are we?"

"I.... I don't know." Ellie Rae had stopped as well. "I've been going off of a map in my head but I'm drawing a blank."

"What does that mean?" Ellie Rae pointed to a hand painted sign on the side of one of the buildings. It was one of the few buildings that surrounded them as they had moved into a less populated area, where there were more trees that created a ring between them and whatever was on the other side. There was what appeared to be a path running through the trees. Lincoln walked over to the painted sign and looked up at it. He touched it gently.

"It's fresh. Someone painted this recently."

"But what does it mean?" Ellie Rae reiterated as she wandered up beside him and looked up at it still, inspecting it. Marissa spun slowly around in a circle, taking in the environment they were in.

"We should keep moving." Marissa called to them. Someone made a noise that sounded like a grunt and Marissa turned to make sure they had heard. Ellie Rae was still glancing at the sign but was slowly coming over. Lincoln came up behind her, eyeing the environment as Marissa led them towards the trees. There was something not right about this place. Marissa couldn't remember this place. She didn't know if maybe the scenery had changed or maybe it was because she had never ventured this far into the city. She had memorised the maps enough to know that the bushlands were close by, but she didn't recall there being buildings near it. As they walked, Marissa pulled her gun out of the waistband of her jeans and put it out in front of her, flicking the safety off as she walked. They walked into the bush slowly, leaving the buildings behind them. The pit in Marissa's stomach grew deeper as a clearing appeared up ahead. There was a crack of a twig behind them, and Marissa shot around, aiming the gun behind her. Lincoln stood there, paused with a guilty look on his face. She narrowed her eyes at him then turned back around. She walked into the middle of the clearing and spun around, scratching her head.

"I have no idea if this is part of the bushlands or not." Marissa chewed her lip as she looked around. Behind them was the city they had left. Ahead of them were more trees. Lincoln screwed up his nose.

"I don't think we're in the city anymore, Dorothy." Lincoln replied.

"Guys..." Ellie Rae was facing the way they had come. Lincoln was the first to turn around and he let out a small yell, causing Marissa to spin around and curse.

Three people dressed in what to be in black leather had guns pointed at them, cruel grins on their faces.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

"This must be our lucky day!"

"And must be the worse day for us." Marissa retorted, keeping her gun pointed at the man in front of the three. He snorted.

"What are you doing in our territory?"

"Territory?"

"You saw the sign. Hercules over there left a fingerprint in it." The girl at the back raised an eyebrow, eyes roaming all over Lincoln. Marissa almost gagged.

"We're not from here." Ellie Rae chirped. Their leader snorted.

"Your girl sure does know her way around." He focussed on Marissa who shuddered. "You're on our land." He then repeated.

"I've never been here before so it's like she said," Marissa said. "We're new here."

"Newbies get shot." Marissa tightened her grip on her gun. "We don't like people on our territory."

"I'm starting to get that."

"I'm starting to think we should run." Lincoln whispered, not taking his eyes off the girl who looked like she wanted to eat him.

"Sure, great plan. That is if you want to get shot in the back." She hissed back. She heard him move his feet around and then all three guns suddenly moved and focussed on where Lincoln was. Or had been. Marissa heard Ellie Rae groan in frustration.

"He ran."

"Well... You're free to shoot him, he's quite a fun target." Marissa quipped. The three gang members seemed a little confused at that and Marissa used that to her advantage. Springing forward, she raced at the first one and aimed for his face, punching him hard. He barely moved but she managed to drop her own gun and grab the gun he was holding with two hands and used it to smack him straight in the face with the barrel. Ellie Rae had sprung into motion as well, taking on the girl who had eyed up Lincoln. That left the other guy who was and had remained silent throughout the interaction. From Marissa's current perspective, it looked like he was focussed on Marissa. Which was good because it meant Ellie Rae didn't need to fend off more people bigger than her. But be even reached for her, he gave a loud, shrill whistle, then wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her off the leader and threw her across the clearing. She landed with a dull thud and felt the air get knocked out of her as she hit the hard ground. Her vision dimmed slightly and if she had been in one of those olden day cartoons, she would have seen little birds flying around her head.

"Mar!" Ellie Rae yelled when she saw Marissa fall to the ground. Marissa waved a hand in her general direction and wheezed as she rolled, narrowly avoiding being kicked as two sets of booted feet came running in her direction. She got to her feet gradually, breathing hard as she tried to get some air in her lungs. She raised a hand at the two who had almost trampled her to give her a moment. They stopped, eyes wide in surprise.

"I just... Need.... A sec...ond." She rasped. She had not expected that action to work, giving her a moment to finally be able to breathe again. As she straightened, she coughed a few times, rolled her shoulders and lifted her fists. Everything hurt but there was no putting off the inevitable. She looked between the two men. They were huge- one with a bright red Mohawk and the other with a tattooed skull ... on his skull. Marissa shook her head.

"Okay, who's first?" The two men looked at each other before shrugging and both running at her. Marissa managed to duck under Skull Heads arm and hooked herself around Mohawks, swinging herself into the air and straddling him, legs tight around his neck. She grabbed a hold of his Mohawk and used his momentum to direct his head towards his companion. Skull Head barely managed to get out of the way as Marissa directed Mohawk into him. Skull Head swung at Marissa, missed her as she let go of the pressure on Mohawk's neck and dropped to the ground and instead, Skull Head punched his friend in the face. As Marissa hit the ground and felt the uncomfortable sensation of ground shock, she heard a disturbing crunch as Skull Head flattened Mohawks' nose. She gagged a little bit at that.

Mohawk howled in pain, drawing the attention of his peers. They all stared at Marissa and Ellie Rae with an unfathomably rage filled expression. Marissa got to her feet and felt herself moving backwards as the gang circled them.

"Ellie Rae?"

"Yeah?"

"Uh, I think we might be in trouble." Marissa stopped as she bumped into something. It was Ellie Rae. Ellie Rae was shaking. "You hurt?"

"Little bit. You?" Marissa felt around for her hand and grabbed it.

"I've definitely had better days." She gulped as the two of them slowly turned around, eyeing up the number of gang members that surrounded them. The girl was grimacing at Ellie Rae, her mouth bloody. "We're screwed."

There was a yell as a flood of black leather clad bodies swarmed the clearing. Marissa stepped away from Ellie Rae just in time to narrowly avoid getting a punch to the face as people flooded the area. She reacted instinctively by diving for the persons middle, knocking them to the ground. She was grabbed by the hips and pulled back.

"HEY!" She screamed as she once again, went flying, crashing into Ellie Rae who was being held by the woman and a man who must've been new. They really were outnumbered now.

Marissa and Ellie Rae crumpled to the ground and Marissa looked at Ellie Rae.

"That hurt." Ellie Rae groaned, clutching her ribs.

"Sorry." Marissa apologised and then found herself being lifted by a bunch of her hair. She yelled. She grabbed on to her own hair just between the fist and her hair and started to wave her elbows back and forward, acting like a washing machine. There was a yell as she connected with a person's nose and was dropped to the ground. As she landed, she felt her ankle crack from the drop and winced. That was going to need to be looked at later. But that, she thought, would only be a problem if there was a later to be had.

"Don't let her go!" The leader yelled as Marissa's dove for Ellie Rae and grabbed her hand, pulling her to her feet. There was twenty of them, circling around the two girls again. They backed up, their backs hitting a tree. Ellie Rae kept a tight hold on Marissa's hand, squeezing it hard.

"Twice within ten minutes. This had got to be a record for being cornered." Marissa muttered. Ellie Rae's face was pale and she was panting. Marissa could see she was tired.

"What do we do?" Ellie Rae kept moving her head, looking back and forth over all the menacing faces of the gang that had now amassed.

"Honestly?" Marissa looked up at the trees. There was no way to climb the tree but there was nowhere for them to run. Her heart pounded in her chest. "I don't- "

"HEY LOSERES, PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE!" Someone yelled. There was the sound of a car gunning its engine and a bright orange buggy appeared, a man yelling from the front seat as he drove through the crowds of people. "WAHOO!" He yelled. The gang dove out of the way, avoiding being hit by this buggy. The man, who appeared to be around Marissa and Ellie Rae's age was behind the wheel, smiling, his white teeth shining like a beacon from his dark skin. He ran a hand over his hair and face, the dreads sitting over his forehead.

"Need a ride?" He beamed. Marissa and Ellie Rae looked at each other and then nodded. "HOP ON!" He yelled as he pulled a gun out and started firing as the gang members started to get to their feet and getting their guns into a shootable position. He aimed for their knees, managing to hit a few but mostly missed. It was enough, though. The girls leaped into the back seats of the buggy and ducked down, both shaking.

"GO, GO, GO!" Marissa yelled and the man tossed the gun back to her and put his foot to the accelerator and spun the buggy around. Marissa popped up from the seat and started firing to clear the way for where the man had originally come from. The gang members dove out the way and she saw she heard someone yell,

"I'LL GET YOU JAXSON!" She aimed the gun at that one person and got him in the shoulder. She hadn't told them her name, let alone her last name. How on earth did they know?

"WAAAHOOO!" The man yelled as he drove into the trees, skilfully avoiding the trees. Ellie Rae sat up as well, her face bright as she seemed to be enjoying the wild ride. She was still pale but she looked like she was having the time of her life.

"Uh, who are you?" Marissa yelled as he zig-zagged through the trees.

"The names Jaxson, by the way! J-A-X-O-N. Jax for short! Pleasure to meet ya!" Ah, that made more sense. They were yelling at him.

"Marissa!"

"Ellie Rae! Pleasure to meet you!" Ellie Rae grinned. Jax swerved and Ellie Rae grabbed on to one of the side bars and yelled as she almost fell out the buggy. There was a flash of golden blonde and Marissa yelled,

"Stop the car!" Jax did as he was told, suddenly to press his foot on the brake, lurching the buggy to a sudden stop. Marissa jumped over the door and dashed towards where she had seen the golden gleam of hair.

"Lincoln!"

"Marissa! You guys are, okay?" Lincoln came to a stop in front of Marissa and when she finally came to a stop, she swung her fist at him and landed a solid punch to his face, knowing full well it was going to give him a black eye. He fell to the ground and put a hand to his face, his mouth making an O in pain as he put his hand to his eye.

"SCORE!" She heard Jax yell in the background. She herd Ellie Rae laugh as she came up behind her to stand over Lincoln.

"You coward!" She yelled. "You left us!"

"I was going to get help!" Yeah right. "But you're okay! And you got... A new friend?"

"This is... Jax was it?" She turned back to him, and he nodded and waved a fingerless glove covered hand, grinning. "This is Jax. Jax just saved our asses." She stood up straight and shook her head at Lincoln.

"Howdy!" Jax said to Lincoln, grinning. Marissa shook her head.

"Come on, asshole. I'm surprised you got as far as you did with that leg of yours." She sighed and offered him her hand. He looked at her warily, trying to figure out if she was going to punch him again or not.

"You'd be surprised what adrenaline and pure fear can do to a person." Marissa cocked an eyebrow. "Fine, cowardice. That better?"

"Definitely." She couldn't help but smile a little.

"I'll take ya'll back to my place so ya'll can rest for a bit. I'm happy to share some food!"

"Proper food?" Marissa heard Ellie Rae ask.

"Canned food sound like proper food?"

"Sounds better than a muesli bar." Lincoln grabbed Marissa's hand and she pulled him up, Ellie Rae jumping down from her perch to grab his other hand to help. She gave him a quick once over to make sure he was okay and that his leg wasn't bleeding through the bandage (much to Marissa's dismay- or relief, both emotions felt the same at this point-, it was not) and then the three of them got back in the buggy. Jax pressed on the accelerator, making the little buggy zoom forward, strategically guiding the car through the trees.

"So, what brings you folk out here? You certainly aren't locals if you've never met the Diablos." He said cheerfully as he drove, looking at Marissa who now sat in the seat beside him, holding on for dear life. Jax drove like a maniac. And he was enjoying it too.

"We're from the other side of the city! The suburbs!" Marissa had to fight to be heard over the wind. Jax nodded his head and turned another corner and then they were out of the bushes and onto open road. It was bumpy but the three passengers managed to stay in their seats. Ellie Rae still looked like she was having the time of her life.

"Well, you've come at a really bad mi amigo! Everyone thing is turning to shiiiiii-." He swerved. Lincoln almost fell out. Marissa yelped. "Sorry about that. ANYWAY, as I was saying. You really chose the wrong time to go on holiday."

"We aren't on holiday." Ellie Rae scoffed. "This is not what I would consider a holiday."

"Heeey, I'm the best tour guide there is!"

"Not what she meant." Marissa sighed. Jax grinned again.

"Some weird stuff went down where we live." Lincoln yelled.

"Yeah it hasn't been too great out here either. I managed to stay hidden but oof, let me tell you, it was mighty terrifying."

"What did you see?"

"I do believe he called himself the Horseman of War?" Marissa looked at Jax, eyes wide. "What, did you not hear him say something about war and all that jazz?"

"I was too busy being shocked and trying not to die to really take any of his words under actual advisement." Lincoln snorted from where he sat. "Did ya'll have major violence?"

"Yeah... The people who were affected just seemed.... Filled with rage."

"Senseless rage?" Marissa nodded. "Do you know what it means?"

"No?" Jax snorted.

"Neither. But I can tell you this; I don't think things are going to get any better for anyone."

They drove a little further, the three of them looking at their environment.

"Where are we?"

"Welcome to the edge of the Expanse!" He grinned. Marissa looked back at Ellie Rae and Lincoln. This must be the Wilderness.

"You mean the Wilderness?" Jax gave Marissa a funny look and the buggy started to slow down.

"Nah my friend. Out here, we call it the Expanse. Yeah, it's wild BUT it's expansive." Marissa frowned at him. "Hey, I've lived out here my whole life. It's what we call it." He shrugged. He pulled up beside a large, roughly built building and got out of the buggy. He offered his hand to Ellie Rae and helped her jump out.

"Welcome to my humble abode. Address? Edge of the Expanse, right in-between two of the biggest gangs we have here. Population? Currently unknown but I think there is probably a lot less after that experience of big nasty a few days ago. Well, it hasn't really stopped but they seem to have moved on to somewhere else now. That and there's a hell of a lot of us doing our own thing." He led them to the front of the building and pulled out a set of keys and put one of them into the giant red, slightly rusty lock. It unlocked and he pulled the lock off, the doors swinging wide open.

The inside of what must have been his workshop was a mess. There were tools and machine parts all over the place, bits of scrap metal and wood in a corner. In the very middle was a car that looked like the cross between a tank and a mustang and a. bulldozer?

"Come on in! Please don't mind the mess, it's always been like this."

"This is your car?" Lincoln stared at the car. Jax grinned. Marissa walked into the workshop and stared at the car. It was... interesting.

Marissa knelt by Jax's car and frowned as she pressed a hand to the cool metal that framed the front window his car.

"And you did this by yourself?"

"You betcha! Gives ya something to do, ya know? Especially when you live in an underground bunker your entire life." He shrugged and pushed his hair back as it fell over his face again. Lincoln was nodding his head in appreciation as he inspected it. "I call her The Duke. She has gotten me through a lot, y'know. Probably wouldn't be here still if it weren't for this beauty." Jax leaned on the hood of the car and patted it lovingly. Marissa and Ellie Rae exchanged a look.

Boys and their cars. It did not matter what kind of run-down turd hole the world had turned into. Boys would still love their cars. And Jax was no exception to the rule. He was covered in oil stains and grease, his arms and hands were covered in fresh, puckered burns and scars that looked like they were recent. Marissa bit her lip and looked between the car and Jax, wondering how stable the car was. Or even how stable their new friend Jax was.

The Duke looked like a child had assembled it, sticking pieces of metal and grills in random places. She was honestly a little terrified to even sit in the car for fear of it falling apart. This was why she preferred to walk. Or run places.

Not that she enjoyed running- it was just a lot safer than sitting in something held together by tape.

Jax just grinned wildly at the three of them, pushed himself off the car, and then waved them towards a doorway.

"You guys must be hungry." Lincoln and Ellie Rae both perked up. Jax nodded. "I've got heaps of food down here. Come with me!" He disappeared into the doorway and Ellie Rae followed him, almost like a puppy following its owner when it knows it is going to be fed. Lincoln started to follow but stopped when he realized Marissa was not following him.

"Are you coming?" Marissa looked around the workshop one more time, then down at the car and then nodded.

"He's crazy, isn't he?" Lincoln murmured to her as they walked through the doorway, suddenly going downhill. Marissa placed a hand on the wall, feeling cool dirt as they descended into Jax's home.

"Well, he sure is a little weird." She whispered back. Although it was dark in the tunnel, she could feel Lincoln staring at her funny.

"Weird? The dude is nuts! He built a... I have no idea what it is, but he built a tank/car with guns in the small chance he would ever need to 'ride into battle upon a noble steed.'" Lincoln quoted. Marissa snorted and shook her head as they came to the bottom of the tunnel and turned into a large room, which could only be described as a bunker. No windows. One large room with curtains to separate everything into sections that, in a normal house, would be walls as rooms. Ellie Rae was sitting on a pile of cushions in a corner of the room and was eating a can of beans that Jax had opened and passed to her. Lincoln and Marissa stood at the doorway, taking in the unfamiliar environment. Jax turned to them and spread his arms out wide in greeting, his wide grin still planted on his face as he welcomed them.

"Welcome to my humble abode! The actual abode part, by the way. That was just the workshop entrance. This is the place to be! The place where generations of the Darren family have lived, reproduced, and died!" Ellie Rae stopped eating when he said died and made a small squeaking noise. Jax turned and shook his head then waved a hand in her direction. "Not really died. Anyone who died generally did it out in the Expanse. That way we would not have to do a super clean and replace of all our stuff. Think smarter, not harder! Beans anyone?" Marissa felt a little bit speechless but nodded and next thing she knew, she was sitting on a beanbag in between Jax and Ellie Rae, eating a can of beans that she had no idea if they were past their use by date. It did feel good to be getting substantial in her stomach though, considering for the past week that the three of them had been living of muesli bars, Twinkies (which, she will not lie, she was surprised had not expired) and blackberries that they had found on their journey. They sat there quietly for a few minutes, eating from their individual cans with Jax smiling proudly around at them like a grand showman. Lincoln broke the silence first.

"So Jax," Lincoln said in-between bites of what looked like canned ravioli. "How long have you been by yourself?" Jax chewed on his food while he thought.

"I would have to say... Thirteen years, 10 months, 30 days. If you want me to be even more precise, someone is going to have to provide a calculator." He said, squinting his eyes as he thought. "That sounds about right though."

"Didn't you ever get lonely? I know I would've if it hadn't been for Mar." Ellie Rae stared at him with wide, curious eyes, concern etched all over her face. Marissa could not help but allow the warm feeling of happiness spread from her chest when Ellie Rae said that. She was such a mother hen. Lincoln rolled his eyes but couldn't help but smile at Ellie Rae. She had that effect on people. Jax shrugged.

"I guess I'm kind of just used to it, aye? It's always just been me and The Duke and sometimes this weird lion thing that I have to scare off because I think it wants to eat me, but I like to think it's just checking to make sure I'm alive. And there's always been the odd person roaming around, minding their own business." Marissa almost choked on her food. Ellie Rae patted her heavily on the back as Marissa coughed, trying to get the food to go down the right way. Marissa nodded to her when she could stop and then turned her head to look at Jax, who was happily munching on his food.

"Lion?"

"Lion thingy. He comes once, maybe twice a month. It gives me time to make things to scare him off." The three of them stared at Jax with their mouths open, Lincoln going red in the face as he tried not to laugh.

Marissa put the can of beans down and wiped her hands on her pants before standing up and nodding.

"Okay, well I think that's our cue to go then. So that we don't become lunch for this nosey lion, don't you guys think?" The sides of Ellie Rae's lips turned down, but she sighed and nodded her agreement. Jax sat up straighter and shook his head.

"Nah, you guys can't go! It's not safe out there, especially because of the lion and the fact that there's a storm coming in and you do not want to get caught in it." Marissa put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow.

"There's no storm coming in." She retorted. Jax sat forward and challenged her stare.

"Wanna bet?"

"You're on." Jax nodded his head, then got to his feet, and faced Marissa, towering over her as he narrowed his eyes. He was close enough that Marissa took a step back but could almost count the scars that were scattered around his face,

"If you're right, you can leave now with anything you need from my stores. Including food, weapons, ammunition." Marissa liked the sound of that, so she nodded. "But if I'm right," He continued. "You have to help me break into the guarded facility that's two blocks from here tomorrow."

"Guarded facility? When did that become a thing?" Marissa frowned.

"Probably in the past few months? They store stuff in it, I think, for those who have some way to pay for it- usually trades. But I'm not that into giving away something I might need later on." Marissa turned and looked at Ellie Rae, who shrugged and looked at Jax. "It was weird, lemme tell you that. One month it was just a few dwellers like me looking after the place. Next thing, there was a big fight and people went missing. These guys turned up and have had the place under constant surveillance ever since. They're real fussy about what they trade for as well. There's all sorts of new things in there now that they have the place." He shrugged. "And they have something I want."

"It wouldn't be such a bad idea to have a warm place to sleep tonight." She offered up. Marissa turned away from her friend and looked back up at Jax, who was now playing with the loose threads on his fingerless gloves.

"Why do you need to get in there so bad?" Jax shrugged.

"They have something I want. And it looks like I have stuff that you need. Now, do we have an accord?" He held out his hand for her to shake, to confirm the deal. Lincoln, who was now standing beside Ellie Rae, was shaking his head in disagreement but Ellie Rae was just stood there, quiet as a mouse, the look in her eyes was so trusting that Marissa knew what she had to do.

"We do." She whipped her hand into Jax's and gripped it tightly as they gave a short, sharp shake. Marissa felt an odd sensation in her stomach, one that made her feel slightly sick, as though they were about to do something they would regret.

But to be fair, everything she did these days made her feel sick with incoming regret.