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of the country looks a lot like Bismark. You’re one of the last cities to get hit. There’s no retaliation, no war, no army and a pretty big chance that the entire world has just gone up in smoke. The government and the military is radio silent. There is no internet and not a single radio or television station is broadcasting.”
    “Who are you, and why are you here?” demanded the largest of the men in the core group.
    “I’m just a traveller, passing through. I’ve seen the destruction first hand, many times. You have a few options; you’ll need to make some tough choices.”
    “You don’t tell us what we need to do,” the man shouted.
    Damian ignored him. “You can try to hold the city but in most places they’re already overrun with gangs. Get whatever food and necessary items you can out of there before it gets closed off. Your best bet is to make for some of the smaller towns. They weren’t hit as hard. They’ll be closing in too though so you have to move fast. If you are willing to work, to help defend the town, or if you can work a farm, they may let you stay. Otherwise you need to find shelter, or stay on the move. I passed a few caravans on my way north.”
    “We’re not leaving.”
    Damian was getting sick of the big, red-faced man and hopped down from his barrel, intent on leaving them all behind. It was the young woman who stepped forward.
    “What good is it to travel?” she said. She didn’t sound angry so he stopped.
    “You can hunt and scavenge, maybe find a place to call your own, who knows. If not, you can trade with the villages and the other caravans. There won’t be any new shipments to grocery stores or gas stations. Your cushy civilization is broken. If you want to survive you have to learn to live the way people did before supermarkets and fast food chains. Good luck.”
    He left them to their bickering. He had some money he had saved and scavenged and he knew that people in these situations would be clinging to the hope that life would be rebuilt soon and things would go back to normal. They would take his money in exchange for supplies and in time they would realize that their money meant nothing. It wasn’t honourable but he had no oaths of service to uphold and there was no room for honour in this wasteland. There was only survival.

IV.
    He was packing buns, dried meat, and ammunition in his ruck sack when the blonde from the meeting stormed up to him.
    “Were you telling the truth?”
    “Look lady, I was in Washington when it blew. I can tell you that over half the people there died within the first days. It was the same in every city I saw. Three hundred and twenty million people in this country and I’m betting there’s barely a cool million of them left alive today, and that number is going to drop long before it starts to climb again.”
    “Where are you going?”
    He shrugged. “West a ways, far as I can get, then south again. Travelling takes longer on foot and summer is short. Have to stay south of the snow if I want to survive.”
    “The idiots back there won’t leave, but there are a few, maybe two or three dozen, who want to go. Can we come with you?”
    “Shit. That many is going to be hard to travel with. You’re better off grabbing a dozen people you trust and getting out of here with as much as you can carry.”
    “I’m alone here,” she said. “My family, if they’re alive, are halfway across the country. I haven’t seen my friends since the bomb dropped, I don’t know if they got out. I’m choosing to trust you.”
    “Grab what you can carry. I leave in the morning.”
    “Thank-you.” She dipped her head in a show of gratitude.
    “Just you.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “The others …”
    “I’m not babysitting a bunch of whiny-ass urban refugees who don’t know a wild strawberry from a piece of deer shit.”
    “You won’t be babysitting, you’ll be guiding.”
    “Are there children in your group?”
    “Yes.”
    “They won’t