The occupants, locked in the cramped, dark utility module, long passed-out from exhaustion had not noticed when the old railrunner slowed to a stop, it's power cell depleted. It was only when the locks disengaged and the door cracked open enough to allow some dim light to penetrate the interior did they begin to rouse. Unaware of exactly how long they had travelled, how far they had gone and where exactly they had ended up, there was a collective sense of confusion.

Abi, who had largely escaped injury, was the first up, and the most disoriented. She had no clear memory of what had transpired, just a vague impression that they had escaped. She remembered, something about a chair and a hand reaching down. And Daniel!

She moved to slide the door open further to get some more light to better assess the others. Daniel was not among them, she was certain she had seem him. Her mind was a nebulous tangle of shifting memories and transient thoughts that escaped like sand through fingers when she tried to latch on to them. She decided to concentrate on her current situation.

She slid the door open fully, and got a better look at outside and what she saw was as foreign as the surface of the moon to anyone born and raised in a Core. Nothing remotely urban existed outside the confines of the runner. They were in the Interim.

The rails cut through a densely forested area, other than the rails and the bed of gravel they sat upon, there was no indication of anything man made. Large hardwoods towered above them, their naked limbs stretched out in every direction. The darkening sky heralded nightfall and drifting down from above came the caws of crows on the wing, heading for some safe haven to roost for the night.

Abi turned back toward the group who were sprawled largely on top of each other. "Everyone OK? Who can walk?" They all stirred about now, some moaned, coughed or swore.

"Where the hell are we?" Trey wondered out loud looking outside. "Looks like a frickin' jungle."

"I think you mean forest." Sean corrected.

"Jungle, forest -whatever man - it's not Core." He groaned.

"Thankfully!" Miller said. "With any luck we're half a world away by now."

"How did we get away?" Abi asked. They all turned toward her, no one spoke, no one had the words. Sean broke the silence.

"Your brother got us out, but it wasn't easy and we ended up in this damn thing. He told me to get us far away but I doubt we've gone far enough, at least we're out of there, away from that guy." Sean replied lifting his pant leg to check his grossly swollen ankle. "I'm not going to be walking too far."

Abi took a closer look at his ankle and frowned, "It could be broke."

"I don't doubt it." He answered, wincing as he tried to wiggle his foot.

"Trey doesn't look so good either, he's lost a lot of blood." Miller added.

"Yeah, but I can still hear you talking about me," Trey added weakly. "I could use a drink."

Abi looked about the interior of the runner, the small packs Daniel and Nine had been carrying contained some medical supplies and a few high calorie rations, but no water.

"We need to melt some snow." Sean instructed, being the only one who had spent any time in the wilderness at all - his forays with his uncle were now proving to be of some use. "We need a fire, look for something we can use to start a fire. Miller, can you walk?"

"Yeah," Miller answered, other than Abi, he was the least injured of the bunch. "I'm just stiff from being crammed in this little box for so long."

"Look around outside for some firewood, but don't wander too far." Sean instructed, then he remembered something his uncle had taught him, "Look for dead branches still hanging from a tree, or from a dead tree that is still standing. Oh, also, if you can find some evergreens, you know, like pine trees, break off some branches, we should line the floor of the runner with them for insulation. I think we are in for a chilly night."

"Right." Miller hopped out of the train. "Dry wood and pine branches, got it."

"And don't stray too far." Sean called after him.

"Okay."

Abi began to notice the chill, "Brr." She said "It's getting cold, we have to keep him warm." Motioning toward Trey who was already shivering.

"Right. We are all going to be cold soon." Sean dragged himself across the car to where Trey was curled up. His wound dressing was soaked through with blood and although it had staunched the flow, it had not stopped completely. He propped Trey up so that they leaned against each other and covered up again with the canvas tarp.

Abi continued to dig through the Paladins' packs and came up with a pair of high tech reflective emergency blankets she quickly unfolded. She helped Sean wrap Trey in the shiny material.

"I also found these." She showed Sean a small packet that said 'solid fuel tabs'.

"Those should help, but we still need a way to light them. Check the toolboxes."

Abi dug through the piles of greasy tools, but could not produce anything to start a fire with. She noticed a set of drawers beneath the dashboard that housed all the runner's controls. She found them all to be locked and cursed.

Her eyes fell upon the open toolbox, she found a sturdy screwdriver and a hammer and attacked the locked drawers with vigor. It only took a few minutes to get the first drawer pried open. It was full of railrunner maintenance logs, manuals and other scraps of paper, all of which could be burned.

Miller returned just then with an armful of firewood, "What the hell was that noise?"

"Abi is ripping the place apart." Sean said, half-joking.

"I'm trying to find something to light the fire with." Abi corrected, giving Sean a playful, stern look of disapproval.

"I won't get in your way," Miller added. "Looks like you are making good progress. I'll go get more wood."

Abi returned to forcing the drawers, eventually having her way with all four of them. There in the bottom drawer she found a flashlight, some instant coffee, a few sugar packets, a package of mints and some flares. She added everything to Daniel's pack, which she now had slung over her back. She kept one flare on hand for the fire. She found a stainless steel mug on the dashboard, "We can use this too." She said triumphantly, wiping it clean on her own shirt. "Now we just need something to boil the water in."

"I think I know what we can use." Miller was back with another load of wood. "Hand me those tools." Abi slid the toolbox to Miller, he grabbed a couple items and disappear for a few minutes. He return with a stainless steel pan.

"Where did that come from?" Sean asked.

"It's part of the exhaust system, it's basically a drip pan. The power cell is hydrogen based, the exhaust is mostly water vapour, this pan collects the condensate. I cleaned it out with some snow, we can throw away the first batch of boiled water, after that it should be safe."

"Good work Miller!" Sean said, breaking some smaller branches from the wood to use as kindling. "I think we need another load of wood and the pine boughs still. It's getting dark, you'd better hurry. Oh, and a dozen large rocks, to place around the fire."

"I'll go with him." Abi said.

"No, stay here." Sean shot back reflexively.

"Miller needs the help," she argued. "Look, you guys got me out of that place, I've been a burden and I'm going to help Miller if you like it or not." She jumped from the car into the snow and headed out into the woods.

Miller raised his eyebrows.

"Better catch up with her," Sean advised with a hint of a grin. "She might get to all the firewood first."

While they were gone he checked on Trey and adjusted the blankets as best he could. He rummaged about the runner, through the toolboxes and drawers Abi had opened looking for anything of use. With the light fading fast outside, it was growing dark in the cabin, he noticed a single light fixture on the ceiling of the cab, but decided not to try and reach it. He turned up a small penlight in the bottom of a toolbox which provided just enough illumination to continue searching through the cab. It was just as much an exercise to give him something to do as it was an endeavour that he expected to produce meaningful results.

By the time he heard Abi and Miller returning from their task he had made his way back to Trey's side and was going through his small pile of loot. One penlight, a small utility knife, a roll of electrical tape, a few railway maps and a most fortuitous find - a key-chain that housed a small compass.

"Did you miss us?" Abi quipped. "We got lots of - what did you call them - pine boughs?"

"Yeah, that's great, spread them on the floor, we can lay on top." Sean instructed. Miller gave Sean a hand moving Trey just enough so that Abi could create a bed beneath him insulting him from the cold steel floor of the runner. Trey moaned weakly as they set him back in place. Abi continued the process until they had a nice cushy mat of pine branches just big enough for the four of them.

"It's not like home, but it's better than the cold floor." She said, as she rubbed the tacky pine sap from her hands.

"I had an idea while I was gathering the wood, I'll be right back." Miller informed the group, he then grabbed a few more tools and disappeared into the gathering darkness. After some banging and cursing he returned and fashioned a make shift chimney in such a way that they could almost close the door. "Hopefully we will be able to keep some of the heat in."

"Good work, Miller, that's awesome." Sean said, impressed with Miller's ingenuity.

It only took a few moments for the flare to set the kindling ablaze and in no time they had a decent fire going. Miller's contraption was a huge success, both funneling the smoke out of the cabin and making it so that the fire made a noticeable difference in the interior temperature. After discarding the first batch of boiled water, they made themselves a single mug of coffee which they shared, along with one of the high calorie rations. Trey was in and out of consciousness, and they were only able to get him to take in a little coffee. Abi drew a trans-dermal pain patch from her pack and affixed it to Trey's forearm.

"That should help with the pain, maybe he'll get some sleep." The other two nodded, but their faces betrayed there concern. Trey was in bad shape and they had few supplies and limited medical knowledge, the situation was grave.

They passed around the rations, while Sean had no doubt of it's nutritional content, it had the consistency of chalk and possessed a difficult to define flavour that was only partially masked by the salty aftertaste. They all struggled to eat their share.

"Trey might have got off lucky." Miller joked.

When the rations were finally washed down with the last of the coffee, Abi stretched out her hand and revealed in her palm, three mints.

"Dessert!" She announced.

They sat in the firelight, savouring the mints, each lost briefly in their own thoughts. Abi struggled with the after effects of the memory extraction procedure she endured which made everything fuzzy and at times the thoughts in her head didn't even seem like her own. Mostly she thought about Daniel.

Miller dwelt on the last traumatic moments of their escape and the carnage they all witnessed. His curiosity about the plague was slowly mutating into a seething cauldron of hatred for the Meta oligarchy and all it stood for.

Sean was mostly considering what the next step should be. They needed a plan, they needed to find some help, a place to stay and some aid for Trey. They couldn't stay in the runner forever.

They listened to the night sounds and the crackling embers, Trey's breathing and the crinkling of the high tech blankets. The unfamiliar sounds of the forest made both Abi and Miller tense. They fueled each other's anxiety with their hyper-vigilance.

"If you two are just going to stare at the door, I might as well sleep." Sean said, his eyes shut.

"That stuff they say about the Interim being full of unimaginable beasts, do you think that's true?" Miller asked, hoping for an answer that would belay his fears.

"My uncle told me a lot of things about life outside the Core," Sean began. "He never went into great detail about such things, but he hinted that it wasn't the natural dangers that concerned him. I was never really too sure what he meant by that. We should be pretty safe in here, there is a fire right in the doorway and animals instinctively avoid fire, I think we're fine for tonight. I'm more concerned with the cold."

That seemed to satisfy their disquiet to a small degree. An owl hooted nearby, Miller's wide eyes darted to the partial opening of the door then back at Sean.

"Pretty sure that was an owl." Sean assured Miller. Both Miller and Abi breathed a sigh of relief. "Really guys, we're fine, get some rest. We have a lot of things to figure out tomorrow. You two knock off I'll tend the fire, we'll take turns."

Sean's reassurance seemed to sit well with Miller who was soon fast asleep. All four huddled together, like den-dwelling animals, under a nest of high tech blankets and a canvas sheet, keeping each other safe and warm.

After a while Abi spoke in a hushed tone, "I can't sleep."

"I know." Sean acknowledged quietly.

"How do you know?"

"I can tell by the way you breathe."

"I keep thinking about Daniel. Do you think he made it?" She asked.

"Abi, I hope he did, I really do, but I don't think that was his intention. He told me his survival would endanger your safety. He told me there could be no witnesses and no one left to talk. He feared that if he were captured, they'd use the same thing on him that they used on you."

"I hate that thing." She said after a long pause. "I feel like it scrambled my brain, it stole something from me. It violated me on a level that's hard to explain. They were in... my... head." She jabbed her fingers to her temples.

She paused again, thinking, staring off at nothing in particular while Sean added some fuel to the fire. She looked up at the ceiling as if trying to recall something, the after effects of the memory extraction were very real. "That man," she continued, "the awful man--"

"Niles Galvin." Sean filled in the blank, his voice laced with contempt. His hands balled into fists on their own.

"Why? What did we do?"

"I really can't say, I mean, we were digging into the whole plague thing, we obviously got too close to something, but only Nic is going to know what that something is, and we have not been able to make contact with him since that night. I can't help but wonder if he had a hand in our escape. That reminds me," Sean fished through his pockets. "Your brother wanted me to give you this." He handed over the netpod. "I almost forgot I had it. He said you would have a lot of questions and this he hoped would answer some of them."

She powered it up and got a lock screen with the Paladin insignia, a black rectangle with three red dots forming a triangle.

"He said your CIT keys would unlock it." Sean instructed.

Abi used one of her wrist ports to interface with the device and it immediately unlocked. She began to browse through the contents.

"Hey, does it have a network signal?"

She checked the home screen and shook her head, "Nothing."

"Damn."

She continued with her search of the device and came upon a video simply titled 'ForAbi'. She nudged Sean. "I think I found something - will you watch it with me?"

"Sure Abi."

She held out her free hand and he took it, she took a deep breath and started the playback. Daniel's familiar face immediately popped up on the screen. Abi felt a catch in her throat, she squeezed Sean's hand tighter.

"Hi Abi, I wish I could be there in person to tell you this, but I don't think circumstance will give us that luxury. Fact is, if you are alive, I'm probably dead and I'm sorry I can no longer be there for you. What you need to understand is that you and your friends had to survive, you likely do not realize what you have accomplished, but you have struck a great blow to the power that enslaves us all. You were right to be suspicious of Susan's Plague, it is not what it appears, nor what Meta claims it to be. I don't have the details, but I know of someone who may have a lot of information on the subject. His name is Gordon Kelly, he's an Interim dweller you need to find him.

Time is short, I cannot fully explain all that has happened since I joined up with MCSF. Please know that I never meant to hurt you or Mom and Dad, give them my love when next you see them, tell them I am sorry for all the pain I have caused them. If you can get word to them, tell them to not come home, I fear for their safety now."

Something in the background emitted a sharp beep, he appeared look away for a moment, then continued.

"Your friend Nic is in great danger, Meta will stop at nothing to find him and when they do they will not be asking questions. They will just kill him and anyone with him, understand? You need to warn him, he needs to leave the Core and disappear. That's all I have time for, I hope this message finds you, take care Abi, I love you."

The screen faded to black, Sean could see the tears streaming down Abi's face. He held her hand and remained silent while she wept in the firelight. It began to dawn on him how alone and isolated they were, how few allies they had and how very far from home they had wandered. He wondered, would Niles really go after their families? It was not such an issue for him, but Abi and Miller both had close ties. They had escaped with their lives, but he did not feel like they got away, Meta still seemed to hold all the cards.

Daniel said that they had struck a blow, but they hadn't done anything, beside getting caught and narrowly escaping. Supposedly Nic might have gained something important from the incident at the university, but there was no way to contact Nic to find out. It was very disheartening. They were all displaced, exiled from their homes, separated from those they love, for what? Abi had endured that memory extraction, and they still don't know if she'll recover from that. Trey is badly wounded and they lost all the Paladins including Daniel. Sean sighed and banged his head against the steel cabinet behind him.

"What is it?" Abi turned and asked, her tear-streaked face glistening in the light of the dwindling flames.

"We have our work cut out for us tomorrow." Sean answered, "Trey won't last long if we don't get him some medical attention. None of us will last without food and a better place to take shelter. Once we have some light again we are going to have to strike out and try to make contact with someone."

"How do you know we'll find anyone?"

"The Interim is sparsely populated compared to the Core, but still populated. As I understand it, there are villages and communities and some roads and such. There are people out here, we just need to find some that will help us. At any rate, we can't stay here, if Meta is still looking for us, staying with the runner would be a bad idea."

"But with your ankle and Trey's injury, how are we going to get anywhere?" Abi argued. "Maybe someone should go for help while the others stay here. This shelter has to be better than none at all."

Sean had to concede her point, "I don't like the idea of sending one or two of you out alone."