Tall pines threatened to blot out the mountains as the trail of cars kept on. Their pace was easy, slower than their normal pace Nancy was worried, far too worried to speed.Or pay attention it seemed as she drove past the turn they were supposed to go down.

  "Damn it Nancy!" Dominic snapped and waved his hand towards the right "I told you three times!" he added in exasperation before he turned to look towards her with a frown.

  "I'm sorry!" Nancy excimed, her voice sounding more angry than apologetic as she spped her hand down onto the steering wheel. She then sighed tensely "Copper? Honey? Can you radio everyone that we're going to make a U turn up ahead?" she asked, raising her tone to a lighter, kinder one.

  "Huh?" Cooper murmured before he fully comprehended her words, he then quickly nodded "Oh yeah, sure " he moved to grab the radio, folding the paper of his novel at the corner in a 'doggy ear' to keep his page as his shifting shut the book.

  Dominic let out a deep breath, calming down.He looked up, back out of the front window and watched the wild foliage fsh by. Dominic felt an unease, almost shaking as a dreadful anticipation clutched his chest.Up ahead was a small clearing, patchy areas free of trees and rge juniper bushes.Fshing a turn signal Nancy took the chance to spin around after Cooper's warning. She still felt a slight intensity in the air but she pushed those feelings down, bming them on Dominic without a second thought. She gnced over, stealing a quick look at him, his eyes were half lidded and the man looked so tired.

  The slight frown on his face wavered, watching the ndscape in front of them as they inched closer to the treeline, watching the caravan turn and follow her retreat. She looked away. Keeping her focus on the grass she drove on as the car wobbled on the uneven ground.

  Nancy corrected their path and everyone seemed to easily follow suit.Dominic noticed her ease, rexing back as she safely finished the maneuver and got back into leading the pack. His eyes ran over her face and he swore she had barely changed, there were a few new worry lines wrinkling her expression and she cut her hair short, he remembered the long braids she used to tie her blonde locks in and felt a dull longing. Dominic took in a deep breath, finding the need to speak "I'm guessing your radios aren't picking up anything?" he made a quick gesture towards the car stereo "Mine doesn't even get the emergency broadcast anymore." he crified, trying to find a reason to force a smile.

  "No but Irvin has this big cool radio!" Cooper suddenly excimed from behind them, clearly having abandoned the book in favor of his parents' conversation "We haven't gotten it working yet but we're gonna try to pick up someone else's radio, maybe even another nations'!" Cooper added hopefully.

  "Really?" Dominic asked, looking up to see Cooper in the mirror.

  "Yeah," Nancy added "He was a soldier." she crified, honestly just feeling a need to add to the conversation.

  "From what I saw in Adamsbury I don't think anyone's doing any better than we are." Dominic said with a tense tone, then he swallowed, adjusting himself in his seat.

  "Was it bad?" Cooper asked softly, lowering his head for a solemn moment.

  "It wasn't good. The military didn't st long, the evacuation camps were overrun within the first few weeks-" "I don't think Cooper needs to hear this." Nancy quickly interrupted, her voice hardening again to a tone that brought up painful memories for the both of them.

  Cooper frowned immediately "I'm not a baby!" he shouted in protest. Leaning forward so he almost climbed on the middle rest between the two front seats.

  "Put your seatbelt on!" Nancy snapped causing Cooper to scoff and throw himself back into the long middle sectional, moving with dramatic fir showing himself buckling in.

  While Cooper shifted Dominic twisted, straining his aching back he turned around to face him "But you have nothing to worry about, Dad's here to look after you." he assured, smiling softly despite the impudent pout on Cooper's face.

  "I can look after myself." Cooper grumbled as he crossed his arms, lowering his head to avoid the frown that overtook the loving grin on Dominic's face. She was clearly hoping his voice was low enough to go unheard but in the silence his whisper was loud. Dominic turned back to look out through the windshield, at the unfamiliar ndscapes.

  Dominic's voice was like a sigh as he said "Keep going and take the first right." he let the map wrinkle on his p as he rested his hand over the creased paper.

  The quiet that encompassed the car was palpable. It overtook nearly the entire rest of the drive, the suffocating foliage around them all looked the same, massive pines beside taller spindly birch's, thick bnkets of moss and wild berry bushes covered the leaf splotched dirt, pnt life was clearly thriving up here, nearing the boarders of the Aryt Drak Mountains the nature seemed wilder, thicker, somehow more alive.

  The roads below them were hardly trails on the map Dominic referred to, the natural ground that was driven on over again and again made a dirt road wide enough to fit two decent sized cars side by side, it never looked paved but occasionally there would be long strips of gravel covered driveways where people had made homesteads and farm gates only for it to trail back into compacted earth.

  There wasn't a town on the map for miles, one they hadn't fled from anyway. Just unmarked farms, barns, and crop fields.

  The fog that rolled out from between branching trees began to thin as they neared the highways.To Dominic no matter how far they went the woods around them didn't look any different, as if they were in a never ending forest. Then. Suddenly it was like the sun came up.

  The canopy of thick leaves and lines of thistle pines finally gave way to the afternoon daylight, their surroundings brightened as massive crop fields grew in the space the woods once held, the plots overtaken by natural foliage and thick splotches of wild flowers and native clovers. Most of the pnted foods were strangled out by the indigenous honeysuckle. Then Cooper finally spoke up. He seemed reluctant to speak up but he did, grumbling almost "Do we have enough batteries to talk to Penny?" he asked quietly.

  Nancy frowned instantly. Smacking her lips before giving a sad "Ohhh..." she tried to meet his eye but Cooper kept his head down "I'm sorry Cooper. Maybe next time?" she regretfully replied, brows pinched together and an awkward smile on her apologetic face.

  Dominic immediately seized the moment before Cooper had a chance to finish his despondent sigh "How'd you all meet her?" he asked before briefly looking at Nancy "I don't think her or that Renáta are from Benslow." he added before twisting to look at Cooper again.

  Nancy made a 'Mhmm' noise as she nodded yes in reply.

  "Oh!" Cooper huffed, brightening just a bit and the way his smile twitched at the thought of her made Dominic's heart melt, happy to see his boy experience what he assumed was his first crush, Cooper pushed the book to the side to better strain his seat belt and inch closer to the front seat "After we drove around for a while we stopped at a diner and their car was broken down there too." Cooper shifted, gncing around the car when Dominic straitened his spine and looked forward again, instead using the mirror to watch his son.

  "She was so skittish when we first met her," Nancy said somewhat in amusement but with a bit of pity, she liked the woman even if she could get on her nerves with ease "Can you imagine that? Dixie more skittish?" she ended with a faint grin, gncing over to look Dominic in the eye.

  "Penny told me she almost hit Wyatt with one of the frying pans." Cooper said with a mischievous smile. Almost ughing but he managed to hold it in.

  Both Dominic and Nancy shared a ugh. Then Dominic spoke "I don't bme her." which caused Nancy's giggling to stop.

  Instead she huffed. Shaking her head and refusing to look at him now. "What is that supposed to mean?" Nancy asked.

  "Huh?" Dominic blubbered. Complete confusion on his face.

  "What do you mean by that?" Nancy snapped this time. Eyes closing half way into a gre. Cooper's smile began to fade, confusion falling to worry, then apprehension.

  "Just," Dominic looked out at the fields around them, at the far, far, distant skyline of the three major cities, well what little he could see over the tall trees "If I saw some grungy guy like him I'd protect my kid too, that's all I mean." Dominic said raising his hands in mock surrender before he shook his head and let them sp back down onto his thighs, and the map.

  "I thought you guys were friends?" Cooper ghosted his question. So quiet his parents hardly heard him but Dominic replied first.

  "Who told you that?" he shook his head almost offended but didn't let it show on his face too much, looking away and out of the passengers side window to avoid Nancy's dagger eyed glower.

  Nancy scoffed, letting her fingers stretch out and off of the wheel briefly. "Look I know you hate Arlene but you never even gave her brothers a chance." she spoke in frustration, she felt her arms tremble as she was overcome with a rush of repressed feelings she once again attempted to force down "You've barely ever even spoken to him and you just assume he's just like his brother." she finished, speaking through a tensed jaw. "You don't know what he, what Bonnie, what all those 'hicks' from my home town have done for us." she argued, putting sarcastic emphasis on the word hick.

  "Like what? Scavenge scraps?"

  "Sir?" Cooper called softly, he felt a need to jump to his friend's defense, a choking reluctance in his tone that made it seem like he didn't want to be heard but a strange feeling bubbled in him, it wasn't anger,

  it was softer, colder than that, Cooper didn't know what the emotion was but he found himself speaking without even realizing what he was saying"Wyatt's been taking me camping, like you said you would-" Cooper was interrupted as Dominic suddenly exploded, shouting "You left our son alone with some random man!" as he turned to face Nancy "What the Hells were you thinking?" he added as a flush of anxiety overtook him, some he didn't even recognize. He pushed them down in favor of anger mixed with concern.

  "Sir?" Cooper called halfheartedly.

  Nancy jerked her head back in sudden offense, scoffing, trying to find the proper words in the mixture of names to call him, with a seething huff she shouted back "He might be some random man to you but I've known him since he was a kid and he's not a fucking asshole like you are!" Nancy finally broke, full on screaming at him with a surprising anger he'd never seen on her face before.

  Dominic whipped his head back like she had struck him, eyes wide briefly before falling back into a gre "I'm the asshole?" he scoffed back "I worked my ass off for you and it was never good enough!" Dominic yelled back with hurt in his voice, edged out by his defensive anger.

  "Please," Nancy growled, now trying to think of whatever she could to cut him deep she snarled out "You loved your job more than you loved us." and as the words left her lips she knew it wasn't true, just how she felt, all the resentment she had built up felt like it was pouring out of her mouth with no control "I heard it didn't take long for you to move on after we moved out, so why would you care who I have around my son." she lowered to throwing out a string of insults.

  "I was broken for months when you left me!" Dominic shouted over her, pointing for emphasis on 'you' before gesturing back to himself "You don't know what it was like to go from coming home to a loving family to once a month visitation and fucking video calls! You just disappeared! You left and you took my son with you-" then the both of them were screamed over.

  "Shut up!" came Cooper's bellow, so loud his voice broke "You guys have been back together for a day and all you've done is fight!" he fought the tears in his eyes as his cheeks turned red with a desperate rage "Shut up just shut up I don't wanna hear anymore!" he added as he spped his hands to his ears to cover them, biting into his lip to hide the tremble.

  "Cooper-"Nancy and Dominic called in unison but he wasn't having any of it as he just shouted over them again "I wanna ride with Penny! Or Wyatt, or Bonnie! Anybody but you two!" he cried out, nearly sobbing as he curled into himself.

  Dominic and Nancy were stunned silent, frustration and guilt hit them, then shame overtook everything else. Cooper threw himself to the side to avoid seeing either of them in the mirror, then the car went quiet, falling into a despairing silence. Worse than the st.

  Thankfully it wasn't longer than another twenty five minutes until they saw the distant dividers of the ft highways, cars were packed together and long left behind. Vines had overtaken most of what they could see and Nancy swallowed dryly as they turned down one of the paved side streets, she swerved gently around crashed cars and woodnd debris on the road until they saw a rge box van ahead of them, just a few moments away.

  Nancy slowed the car down and everyone followed suit. Most of them drove past her and settled before she did. Slowly they all circled around and parked as safely as they could around the filthy side street. Trying not to get too close to the sparse foliage without blocking the truck too much. The moment Nancy put the car in park Cooper threw himself out of the door and stormed forward, Dominic called out his name to no avail as Cooper ignored him and ran forward towards the rest of the group.

  Dominic cursed as he fought against his seatbelt while Nancy threw her own off with ease, quickly she ran to follow after him. Dominic got himself moving and was right behind her.

  Most of the group had begun to mosey over to the moving truck, Wyatt and Bonnie had immediately began poking at the hood, searching around for any obvious signs of disrepair.

  Arlene gnced back to see Cooper charging towards the group, she saw the teary anger on his face and looked up towards Nancy's desperate frown. She mouthed 'What's wrong?" but Nancy just shook her head and kept her speed walking.

  "Wyatt!" Cooper's voice called, breaking slightly, as he ran past Arlene. Nearly shoving her as he moved fast, head down and running.

  Wyatt was facing the truck as he grumbled a "Huh?" before he turned, moving away from the vehicle just a step or two, he hardly had a second to turn, he didn't even have a chance to see Cooper or his parents' expressions before Cooper threw himself into his gut.Wyatt grunted as Cooper pressed his full weight into him, Wyatt managed to snap out an arm and prop himself up with the tracks grill. He didn't get knocked too far off, pnted a foot and kept the both of them standing. He rose a brow in confusion, hands hovering over Cooper's shoulders he looked down at him "You alright?" he asked, then looked up searching for Nancy.

  "I wanna ride with you." Cooper whined softly.Nancy was near tears herself as she ran up to the group.

  "Kay ..?" Wyatt replied.

  "Cooper!" Dominic shouted, he felt guilt, worry, then anger. He didn't want any of these people anywhere near his son, Wyatt met Dominic's eye, bewildered, everyone seemed confused.

  Bonnie stepped forward as Cooper's parents stormed past Arlene to follow his trail. She looked at Dominic's frown and elected to ignore their drama as she gestured to the truck "So what, you blow a gasket? Spark plug?" Bonnie then gnced at Wyatt and gestured, wanting his input.

  "Was the engine smoking when it died?" Wyatt asked, gently patting Cooper's shoulder but Arlene practically cut him off as she chuckled out "Or did you just run out of gas?" she sniggered.

  No a word left his lips as Dominic sped forward with a determined stomp, he surged forward past everyone, directly towards Wyatt, towards Cooper, he reached out to snatch Cooper's arm and drag him back, pulling him away before in the same move, as Wyatt's expression dropped, Dominic jerked his arm back and drove his fist as hard as he could into Wyatt's face, his boney knuckles broke skin as Wyatt was thrown back, off bance and now against the truck.

  The metal hit his back and Wyatt felt the license pte dig into leg, he saw red, Wyatt bunched his fists turning to face Dominic.Wyatt was so angry, flustered, he let a curse slip "What the fuck!" he shouted as he stomped his foot down in frustration, spinning around to face Dominic as he pushed a protesting Cooper towards Nancy.

  Wyatt's hand snapped to his face, the dull ache that simmered in his cheek earlier had blown back into a full blown sharp burn, if his eye socket wasn't already bruised he certainly knew it was going to be now, with that familiar swelling in his cheek Wyatt felt he was going to be three shades of purple in a few minutes "What was that for?" Wyatt shouted, he dragged himself back to hiss feet and straightened up, for once standing at his full height though he was still a few inches shorter than Dominic

  Dominic opened his mouth and moved his hand to point at him but before his words came or his gesture finished he let out a yelp of protest, Bonnie snatched his arm before he got any closer to Wyatt and twisted it, suddenly Dominic was down on one knee with a hand painfully bent behind his back.

  "Bonnie!" Nancy instinctively protested. She wanted to rush forward but Cooper was so overwhelmed he was reduced to tears, blubbering at her side incomprehensibly.

  "Now Wyatt ain't done anythin' for ya to be actin' like such a jackass!" Bonnie shouted, completely ignoring Nancy, instead she took to gring a hole in the back of Dominic's head.

  "S'okay Bonnie." Wyatt grumbled, rubbing the side of his bruising face, then spat into dirt. Thankful not to see blood.

  As Arlene, Nancy and finally Iona converged closer Bonnie dragged Dominic up to his feet and shoved him forward towards Nancy, Arlene passed him by with a sneer to check on Wyatt, Dominic shouted "Don't go near my kid," before he turned and gave Bonnie a condescending sneer "And don't touch me you backwoods moron!" and as that left his mouth everyone blew up, now standing in the middle of the blood stained street screaming at each other.

  Arlene was screaming her frustrated insults at Dominic while Nancy tried desperately to console her son, Bonnie was sarcastically fpping her hand open and closed as Dominic shouted whatever he could think up, clearly she wasn't taking in his compints. Some had long withheld frustration to let out with others felt compelled to jump to others defenses.

  "Knock it off!" Wyatt surprisingly raised his voice above all of them, "Damnit!" he added, flinching from the pain the shot through his jaw. Then Arlene got to his side, grabbing his arm to pull his hand from his face. He tried and failed to gently swat away her prodding and gave up when she spped his shoulder.Wyatt huffed, flinching back but Arlene still managed to grab his chin, her thumb pressing into the thin scar that caused a slight bald spot in this light stubble.

  Arlene frowned as she focused in on the small cut in his skin, Wyatt pouted but didn't fight her as she titled his head to see the damage.

  "What are you doing?" Iona snapped in exasperation. She fought the urge to wave in anger.

  Bonnie just waved Dominic off and added "You ain't doin' yourself no favors actin' out, especially since mister city boy can't fix his own damn truck." Bonnie sneered. Her normal upbeat tone was repced with cold disapproval.

  Iona looked between them, shifting, the others began to saunter

  over to the commotion, Ralph and Renáta gnced at each other as they appeared behind Iona. "Just Decker being an ass like always." Arlene grumbled as she finally stopped fussing over Wyatt, he grumbled and Arlene looked away to face Iona "Stuff him back in the van we'll fix the truck without him." she added in frustration.

  "What'd I do to piss everyone off today?" Wyatt huffed, compining quietly. His frown met Arlene's pinched brow and she murmured a slight 'aw' which only made him feel more patronized, not that he expressed that.

  Iona gave them all a good once over, she quickly assessed what little damage was done to her companions and let the frown show on her stern face.She turned. Ready to set them all straight. She couldn't even meet their eye as when she turned to face them Dominic, Cooper, and Nancy, were half way back to the van already. Nancy had a hand on Dominic's back and kept him moving forward while Cooper was on Nancy's other side, Nancy was pying with Cooper's hair, the strands that poked out from his hat, and she was speaking with a hushed toneShe lead them all away for a long talk.

  Bonnie was gring towards them "I got tools 'n my car." her voice growled before she turned and pushed past Ralph, he was going to make some remark as she moved by but the fire in her brown eyes gave him just enough pause to not earn her wrath.Then he looked back to his siblings. Arlene forcing a smile as she tugged at Wyatt's jacket, he resisted the urge to pull away and let her finish adjusting his clothes.

  Ralph saw the added scuff on Wyatt's marked face and scoffed "What'd you do to deserve that?" he asked with a chuckle, approaching zily before he took in the sight of the stained headlights.

  "Fuck if I know." Wyatt grumbled. He ended up just adjusting his jaw and following after Bonnie, ready to help her dig out the tools to avoid everyone's attention.

  "Arlene, I can see you're already watching but keep a good eye on Decker. I don't like how this is going." Iona said, arms crossed watching Nancy soothe Cooper until he got into the van.

  "I already know this isn't going to end well." Arlene replied.