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Simon was checking the rifle Rose had " I found out why this thing folded up on you " he told her " the firing pin broke" " Can you fix it?" " Nope" Simon answered. He opened up the back door of the armored car and chucked the rifle out of the moving vehicle.

" That was mine!" she yelled at Simon " A weapon that doesn't work will get you killed quicker then anything." Simon pasted her the rifle he had originally given to Harry.

" Use this for now".

Harry noticed the gas gage was on E " We need to find some petrol soon" Rose looked through the road atlas that was laying between her and Harry in the front seat "There's a town about ten miles south of here." " Okay" Said Simon " Lets try there."

Tusk was a small college town that looked like a Norman Rockwell wet dream.

The town was mostly untouched, as if it had been frozen in time. The Armored car slowly drove down Main Street, except for the occasional wander undead the town seemed to be clean. " Where did they all go" Asked Rose " Maybe the military cleaned them out of here." Said Harry " Then why aren't any soldiers still here? Or any people for that matter." Rose asked back. " Maybe its like it was in Manhattan" " No I don't think so" Interjected Simon " If some one used fuel-air explosives, there would be fire damage."

The trio found a gas station a few blocks away from the campus that had diesel fuel.

The power was out and Simon was forced to use the station's water hose to siphon out gas from one of the tanks. Rose and Harry laughed as he gagged and spit out a mouth full of gas.

" How about we spend the night," suggested Harry as he walked out of the store with his arms full of snack foods. " " Sounds like a good idea." Responded Rose. Simon kept looking up at the college campus. " You know there might be a lot of stuff we could use up there."

Simon took his backpack out the armored car, and emptied everything out of it.

"I'm going up there, you two stay here." " Simon it going to be dark soon, should you really do that?" " Don't worry, if it gets too dark I'll just spend the night and be back in the morning." Simon put on the empty and started walking towards the campus. " Be careful!" Rose shouted " Don't worry about me sweetie, I'm indestructible " Simon told her with a sly grin and head off towards the college.

The campus was clean, which surprised Simon as he walked the grounds. No litter anywhere. Not even the trashcans had anything in them. "Weird " Simon thought to himself.

Simon found the library locked, but a minute's labor with his lock picks and he was inside.

Long deep shadows filled the spaces between the stacks and a light layer of dust covered every thing. Simon looked over the shelves, selecting books from the different sections.

Ayn Rand, William W. Johnstone, and Cheryl Duran. As he was about to leave, Simon heard something move on the other side of the library. He crept over to the last stack and found a young woman with blond hair hiding in the far corner. " Its okay sweetie, I won't hurt you." He told the woman. A sinister grin came across her face, and then suddenly Simon felt something hit him in the back and he fell into darkness.

" Wake up!" screamed a voice, then he felt a swift kick to his ribs. He opened his eyes and saw three men standing over him. All of them were dressed in tye-dye, peace symbols and sandals. " Oh God" Muttered Simon " I died and went to hippy Hell" This comment brought a swarm of kicks. Simon found his hands tied behind as he lay on the floor of a poorly lit room. He had been striped of his pistol and over coat. " Okay, you didn't kill me, what do you want?" One of the men stuck a Sten submachine gun in Simon's face.

" You'll know when it's time and not before you fascist bastard." " Just for the record I'm a libertarian." He told them. This earned Simon a few more kicks. "We'll be back to get you for your trial." One of them said as they shut the door.

Harry zipped up his sleeping bag and lay down in the front seat. " You think Simon's alright?" Rose asked softly " Not to worry Luv, Simon's fine"

Simon was left alone, only the retreating light of a small window provided any illumation. "I thought those asshole would never leave" Simon thought to himself.

It took him only a half a minute to free himself " good trap setters, bad knot tiers".

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