The World has Died

"Fine, let's get going then before it gets dark. Can you imagine all the chaos we'll run into? It was pretty hectic last night." Chomps remember last night when the madness begun, people were screaming and freaking out all over. He wasn't even sure what to make of it and to think he..A wrestler was much calmer than the other people were. Just goes to show what patience and a lot of concentrated training does to ones mind.

"You might be crazy.." He muttered in Jazz's direction softly. Raising an eyebrow when she brought up werewolves at night. That would be interesting, it'd be like out of a horror movie. Chomps imagined himself trying to fight a werewolf with his bare hands and how difficult it would be. His train of thought ruined by Jazz who was looking at him..Again..What was with her and staring at him? Did she have some like secret crush on him or something? "Yeah..Definitely werewolves, Jazz."
 
"I didn't rob a store, just a bunch of dead people in the subway," Kale commented to Chomps, then looked up at Stephen as he outlined the plan and answered her question. Getting out of New York with horses and a carriage was not going to be easy since other people were bound to have the same idea. Even she could figure out the need to leave without asking - colder weather meant death in the North without electricity, and there was only so much around to burn.


She accepted Stephen's hand up and stepped onto the footboard, swinging her bag off her shoulders and tucking it into a random spot on the carriage. Before sitting, she rummaged around in it and pulled out a large ziploc baggie with sliced up cheese and pepperoni inside. It'd go bad if they didn't eat it soon, so they might as well have something to munch on, right? As she sat, she looked over at the odd girl and grinned at the werewolf comment.


"I agree with Chomps. There probably are werewolves down there. Though, if there are, I probably just killed them all. The entire section under us is crushed now. It caved in while I was in there," she said, then looked over at Jasmine and held out the bag invitingly since she had noticed the girl eying her pack before.


"If we're going to go out of the city, we're probably better off going West before we go South," she suggested, looking at Stephen. "Everybody else is going to be taking a direct route, and judging by how they're all acting, we should probably avoid that. Going over and taking roads other than the interstate might take longer, but it'd probably be a lot safer. The more people that we meet, the riskier getting robbed will be. I don't know how many looters I saw before I went down in the subway. That makes sense, right?"
 
I chuckled a bit at Jasmine's comment, and glanced at the subway tunnel. "It's possible...Seems like science and physics have completely flipped upside down, eh?" I said, shaking my head. I looked at Kale, nodding at her suggestions. "Sounds like a plan Kale. Also, lets all keep a look out for anything that could be even remotely useful now or in the near/distant future. Better to be over-prepared than underprepared." I said with a simple nod. I flicked the reigns a bit, and the horses turned to head opposite of the cave-in. I glanced around, and saw, for the first time, a dead city. The only way this would end well was if the lights flicked on tomorrow, and there was no sign whatsoever of that happening. Part of me hoped that this was an isolated incident, that the rest of the world wasn't like this, but I was not expecting much.

Slowly, we passed through various buildings, most of which had the windows smashed out, But a few still seemed open for business, restaurants offered free food during the last blackout, but this...this was more, and everyone could feel it. We continued to receive confused, and less often angry stares, but so far, no one seemed hostile. As we passed the cathedral, I glanced at it with a great deal of remorse, confusion, and a thousand other emotions. That was where I was heading when this happened...I did a quick sign of the cross, and repressed the desire to go inside. "We don't have time...we'll be back. We'll just go into the country until this blows over. We'll be back..." I whispered, not sure if I meant it, or was trying to convince myself.
 
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If Jasmine thought Stephen was the 'leader' of the group of maniacs, she was wrong. Kale was the girl with the plan and the food. Not sure which one was more important than the other, but it certainly made Jasmine aware of every little thing the girl did or said. She felt like a tiny puppy when Kale pulled out the pepperoni and cheese from the zip-locked bag. The smell hit her first, followed by the realization that she still hadn't eaten in days, and finally ending with a twitch of her fingers when Kale handed the bag towards her. Jazz cracked a smile and took the bag surprisingly calm, sliding her fingers in to extract a piece of cheese that she placed into her mouth, chewing properly. Of course, in her head, she was ravaging everything in that bag, but she had enough of showing her insanity to complete strangers for one day.

"Sho....Ahll we haff to do ish get outtada shity and wait 'til ahll of dish is ovur or shomething?"she asked, mouth full as she popped more pieces of the food into her mouth. Her eyes were still on Kale, though on occasion they would flick to Stephen. She didn't look at Chomps anymore. It was obvious Muscle Man didn't like the fact that Jazz was with them. Oh well. Should have killed her when he had the chance back in the library. And, now that Stephen gave her the small pocket knife, he need not worry about being beaten over the head with knowledge. Not that she thought that tiny head of his was capable of retaining that much. The answer to her question was Stephen leading the horses away from the damaged subway and hopefully away from the werewolves.

"Think I'm crazy if you want to..."she muttered under her breath, smiling in a secret satisfaction about all the books she read on the species. They'd be thanking her when she rammed a book over the head of one of the beasts if they tried to eat them in their sleep. Sleep? Jazz tapped the side of her horse a bit harder, trotting beside Kale and Stephen. Chomps could've stayed miles behind her if he wanted.

"What about the dark? We're just going to go into some abandon building or something and sleep the night away? I mean, I know the lights and power and things are gone, but something tells me their not just gonna turn back on in the morning."
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Chomps didn't say anything else. He listened to the plan that Stephen devised and was going to do his part somehow. Whether it was looking for something that could be salvaged for good cause or seeing supplies he can grab for his group. Chomps was also pretty good with fixing things and surely would be lifting things, he was the strongest one in the group from the looks of it. The roads away from the other crowds would definitely be safer, and probably less populated for sure. They might even find more supplies. His attention turned to Jazz again when she mentioned about going into dark buildings. Even though he wasn't fond of her, he feel like he should say something to help assure her everything would be alright. "Look..Even if the lights don't come back on..We'll be fine..We have our group who will look out for each other." Chomps smiled a bit then looked back to Kale and Stephen.
 
Kale nodded thoughtfully as Stephen mentioned being prepared. That reminded her of something that she had picked up, so she turned and rummaged around behind the seat in the bags that she had. She pulled out a folded square and turned back out, smoothing it over her lap. It was a map of the east coast. At one point, it had probably been the whole country, but it had torn in the crash and was dotted with scorch marks. She eyed New York and pointed to where they were, then looked at Stephen.


"We're here. If we follow these roads.." she said, tracing her finger West and in a gradual arc to the South that would eventually merge again with lesser-used highways. "We should be fine. Plus there will be plenty of farms and stuff along the way. If they're abandoned, it'd be a good chance to stock up on whatever we need."


She looked over at Chomps and nodded once, then looked at Jasmine and shook her head.


"You're going to have to learn to live in the dark. We have to assume things aren't going to change. If we go about acting like everything's going to be perfect again tomorrow, we're going to get blindsided and probably end up dead. Right now, this is the life we're living, and I don't know about you guys.. But I'm not just going to roll over and hope things change," she said, folding up the map and setting it on the seat between herself and Stephen.
 
I glanced over at Kale, and nodded, agreeing with her, no matter how much I didn't want to. "The roads will be covered in stalled cars through. It's not going to be easy...we'll have to hope emergency lanes weren't used last night..." I said, and then went back to thinking. We had to expect the worst, that was the only way we were going to survive. I glanced at the sky, and watched as light slowly faded away, and the dark skyscrapers began casting long shadows on the ground. I rummaged around in my pocket, and pulled out my Iphone, wrapped up in headphones. I looked at it for a minute or so, and then stuffed it away. There were too many memories on it to throw it away just yet, not while there was still hope, regardless of what Kale said. I kept quiet for a while now, as the others chatted and kept an eye out. Slowly, the day turned to night, and the second night of total darkness came as the sun set behind the skyscrapers. I looked around, and slowly the world was disappearing from view as total darkness fell upon the world. "Well...there are two options now guys...we can keep going, or camp for the night...Which is it?"
 
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Jasmine didn't react when the sky winked to it's infinite dark indigo. It was the color of night, and even though she did not remember the last time she was out in the open to catch it, darkness was familiar to her. A closet full of darkness versus a sky full of darkness. Surely, the sky would reign supreme. No matter how horrid the full blunt of their situation was, beauty was beauty and there was nothing that could be done about it. Jasmine's brown eyes winked under a star before the voice of her 'companions' came back to her. It was nice to have the sound of others around her. Others that she didn't spawn inside her head.

"I guess you're right,"she answered Chomps, not looking towards him and leaving it at that. She could tell what a truce was when she heard it. One problem down. A million more to go. Her horse whinnied and shuffled in it's hooves, the clopping sound creating some sort of rhythm while Kale talked. Facts were facts and they were given. Stephen agreed...but the look on his face spoke otherwise. Jasmine frowned, a slight wrinkle scrunching across her nose. For someone who meant no harm, he sure did look like he was ready to give up and drop everything he held. Low esteem when pertaining to difficult situations. She pulled that back from a psychology book.

"Let's keep going. The horses have been rested all day, I'm sure. I don't think it's such a good idea to pull them out, ride on them for about 6 minutes before shoving them back into a stable. It's cruel, inhumane, and stupid." Jasmine didn't add that she wanted to be under the night of the sky. "That, and this isn't really an...inviting place,"she whispered, her eyes skirting to those of the walkers as her voice dropped. "I don't think a bunch of locked doors and some teens are gonna do good against a band of angry people...Especially if they suspect us of knowing something they don't. Yeah, the electricity is screwed, but society is society. A robber is still a robber, in the night or day."

Jasmine paused before looking towards Stephen as if she had not realized what she just told him, blinking once and once early. "That's about all I got."
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"I agree..We just took the horses out, putting them back in so soon would make us seem like we only needed them for a minor task. Horses can feel too, ya know." Chomps didn't want their own means of lugging supplies around to halt when they just got started. "Jazz is right though, this place doesn't really seem like the place we would want to set up camp. Who knows who will be out there and if we'll be alive in the morning?" It was a true fact, people would be crazy enough to do such things such as kill others in the night and take their supplies. Chomps looked to Stephen. "And if the lanes were used..Surely we'll find a path or we can make our own." Chomps had a feeling that would be the case. The lanes would be closed up and the group would have to make their own path. But if there was no way too, they might have to think of a new plan and time was ticking by the second they thought on it.
 
"If there are too many cars, we can always put them in neutral and push them out of the way, can't we?" Kale suggested to Stephen. "If not, at the very least we can search them for supplies. My map isn't great. A road atlas would be nice."


She didn't say anything at first when he asked about stopping for the night. Instead, she listened to the input from the other two. They both had valid points and were very clearly on the same side of things. She considered that, and glanced at the horses. They weren't lagging or drooping as she knew exhausted animals would do. At this pace, they could likely continue for hours. Well past sunrise, at least. That would be enough to get them out of the city and to a more stable resting environment.


"I agree as well. Moving on gives us the option of finding a safer place to rest. We should go as far as we can before the horses tire. It'll get us out of the city and hopefully away from most people," she finally said, looking at Stephen.
 
I nodded. "Whelp, majority rules. Can't say I want to stay in a blackened New York City either. Hyup!" I said, and then whipped the horses into a slightly faster trot. "Though I'm with Chomps...we're going to be making our own path. The thought of a highway full of cars isn't overly inviting though...God knows how much time we'll lose moving them aside...So let's stick to sidewalks and back-roads for as long as possible..." I said, and turned my attention to the bag. I rummaged around in it, and pulled out Five glow-sticks. I quickly cracked each of them. Each one was a different color, purple, blue, green, yellow, and red, but they put off the same amount of light, about as much as a candle. "They aren't flashlights...but they'll do I guess...better than being completely blind, right?" I said, tossing the purple one to Chomps, the green one to Jasmine, handed the blue one to Kale, kept the yellow one, and tossed the red one on the seat next to me.

We rode for perhaps three hours, sticking to the sidewalks to avoid the dead cars. We had to move one or two aside, but it was truly no big issue. I glanced around, and saw something moving in the shadows, and the horses let out a whine. "Hey! Who's there?" I yelled, and then two men came out in front of us, each aiming guns at us. My heart skipped a beat for a moment, then I remembered the cop and gangster earlier. "The hell do you plan on doing with those? Gun's don't work anymore." I said, trying to get a better look, but all I saw were their silhouettes. "Maybe not, fucker, but this does." An angry, aggressive voice said to our right, and someone came close enough for us to see the end of a crossbow bolt aimed at us."Well damn..." I said, dumbfounded, and raised my hands. "Food. Now." Was the only other thing he said.
 
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"You'd think they'd want the horses..."she muttered to Kayle under her breath. She didn't hold her hands up like Stephen did simply because she needed them to hold tight to the reigns. Her horse, Dox, she named him, became instantly irritated with having something sharp and pointy pointed towards his general direction. Horses did have a sense of danger just as all other animals did. They sensed the ominous drop in temperature around them followed by the rising of heartbeats and adrenaline. She remembered reading over that fact clearly and instantly began wondering if the other horses were feeling the same way Dox were. Her brown eyes swept over each horse, looking into their eyes and trying to find a sliver of similarity between them and Dox.

In short, she wasn't even paying attention to the threat.

"What little food we do have should go to the horses, don't you think? Poor things will be hungry in a while." Jasmine slid her hands through her hair and sniffed. The look of absolutely clueless. "Then again...I don't think horses will want pepperonis. I'm gonna laugh so loud if one of them actually eats one." She paused and tilted her head to look at Kayle, avoiding putting even an ounce of attention on the threat ahead of her.

"Or did I eat it all? ...I ate it all, didn't I?"
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Chomps followed the group with a satisfied smile. Stephen actually was going to follow his idea of making their own path. Just for that, he was even more excited to continue traveling. Sure things weren't the best right now, but it seemed much better now that they had horses, food, and a direction; which was out of the city. Chomps took the purple light and kept a firm hold on it. He wasn't fond of holding a stick that screamed 'here we are.'

Few hours passed and they had to avoid obstacles. Chomps earned his weight by pushing cars out of the way, along with some other heavy debris. When Stephen stopped and called out, Chomps immediately looked in the same direction to see the shadows. More allies?..No..Enemies..Damn it and they were armed too. They wanted our food, and were doing the cowards way of trying to get it, threatening. Chomps hated bullies, no matter how old they were. Even though they were surrounded, it didn't intimidate him. He looked to see what he could do..An idea came to mind.

Chomps looked to the man with the crossbow, then the man with the gun. Either way, Chomps would probably be shot if he tried something, but which one was he willing to take? The bullet? or the bolt? Definitely the bullet, least you could pull the bolt out. "Only food you're getting is my fist in your stomach!" And with that, Chomps dashed forward and gutted the man with the gun with his right fist. Surely he would drop the gun, but he was left completely exposed.
 
Kale nodded as Stephen mentioned sticking to back roads. That was a wise decision anyway - there would be less people, like she had mentioned when she said they should avoid the interstate going South at all costs. She watched him as he pulled out glow sticks, taking the blue one that he handed to her. Shifting a bit in her seat, she hooked it to a belt loop on her hip and looked around at the others. Red belonged to nobody, Stephen had red, Chomps had purple, and Jasmine had green. She committed that to memory, though she hoped she'd never have a desperate need to know that tonight. Hopefully they'd all stay together without any issues.


She was sitting back and munching cheese cubes when the carriage suddenly stopped and Stephen called out to.. who? Cheeks full like a squirrel, she sat up straight and looked around to see that two men were aiming guns at them.


Geniuses.


Stephen pointed out their idiocy before she could, which was actually good, because she might have choked. She chewed and swallowed, then looked off to the side to see a guy with a crossbow. Interesting. Three men, and only one was a real threat. The problem was that they didn't have any sort of retaliatory weapons apart from a small blade or two. She still had the pocketknife that Desmond had given to her in the subway, but the blade was only like four inches long and she didn't want to get that close to these guys.


Jasmine made a good point about the horses, but Kale didn't respond to the pepperoni comment for a few reasons. One, Jasmine did eat it all, and Kale was tempted to laugh about it instead of remaining serious in the situation.. And, two, Chomps was off his horse and running at one of the guys with the guns. Wouldn't it have been more beneficial to distract the guy with the crossbow? She looked over at him and saw that he was turning to take aim at Chomps. Shit.


"Take the carriage and Jasmine and get out of here. They don't have horses, just run them over or something. I'll catch up," she said hurriedly to Stephen, jumping off the carriage and picking up a pipe laying beside them. It likely landed here from a car crash, by the looks of it. The problem was that it was heavy, but she could carry it. For a little while. She went over to Crossbow Asshole and swung hard at the back of his head, just hoping to knock him out before he got a bolt loose.
 
As Chomps punched one of the gunman, he doubled over, and Kayle leaped out of the carriage I was rather dumbfounded, though thankful, at their quick thinking. I looked over at Jasmine, and quickly dropped my hands to take hold of the reigns once more. "Well, you heard the lady!" I said. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the man with crossbow take aim at Chomps, and I immediately began to panic a bit. I just met the guy, but the thought of a bolt hanging out of him wasn't very pleasant. Fortunately, Kale had that taken care of, it seemed. I whipped the horses into a gallop, and nearly plowed into the man in front of us, though fortunately he was smart enough to get the hell out of the way. I glanced back to see what was going on, and I saw Kale striking the man with a pipe. He couldn't turn to her fast enough, and so he was met with the resounding strike to the head, knocking him out cold, and sending his bolt off in some wild direction. I pulled the horses to a stop, though not before getting a bit farther away from everyone, and stayed put, breathing an audible sigh of relief. "Well, that's taken care of with no real problems, right?" I said, and then thought for a moment. "Hey! Grab the crossbow and his arrows! I think we're well within out bounds to relieve him off it, right? Check the pockets to while you're at it!"
 
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It wasn't until Chomps attacked the man full on did Jasmine realize that they were getting themselves into a brawl. He punched the man with the gun, and she bet that the hit felt like a bulldozer of bricks going through the man's abdomen. Not a pleasant feeling, especially with Chomps being as strong as he looked. Jasmine heard the man let out a grunt of frustration, surprise, and minor pain. She held onto her reigns casually and looked over to see Kale swinging a pipe, telling Stephen to get she and the horses to safety. Jasmine's jaw dropped, her left eye twitching like it always did when she strained to think of something clever or witty to say. All that came out was a whine.

"Whaaaat? I can fight! I'm not a little baby!"she exclaimed, waving her green glow stick into the air as if it were a lethal weapon. Of course, no one paid attention and a half to what she was saying. Typical. Lips pursed when Stephen clicked his horse off into a hastened trot, she followed behind, not even bothering to look behind her, even though the grunts, shouts, and screams became imminent. Instead, she squeezed her glow stick, making the green glow a little brighter.

"I could have taken out that cross bow wielder. You know that you can't shoot a cross bow at more than one target and expect it to hit someone? Trajectory with the arrows are much different the ones in bows and arrows. And it takes forever and a half to reload it. Reloading a crossbow takes up 5-7 seconds, and that guy looked like an idiot because it was already loaded, so he looked the part. But, I bet, if he would have shot it, it would have taken him forever to reload it. It's quite the process..." Jasmine went on with that talk until she heard no more yelling, finally dropping her annoyance for not being apart of the bloodshed before looking at Stephen as if she hadn't been talking the whole time.

"Shall we, handsome?" Without waiting for so much as a nod, Jasmine brought Dox into a trot back to Chomps, Kale, and 3 bodies. There was very little blood, but a lot of bruises and scratches all over the men. Kale looked like she had ran a marathon with all the panting she was doing and Chomps looked as if he had just completed a game of solitaire. Looking down at the bodies, something caught her eye. The familiar sight of leather.

"Ooo~!" Sliding one leg off of the horse, she hit the ground, surprised to find her head swimming and swirling. Well, she had been on a horse for the most part of the travel. Sudden movements would have that effect on her. Regardless, she nudged the arm of a groaning man out of her way and grabbed the book, eyes quickly skirting over the title before frowning slightly.

"Masterbation For Dummies? ....Interesting,"she commented, quirking a head to Stephen and waving the book. "...This isn't gonna help us survive, is it?"
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"You better not get up..." Chomps said as he stood tall over the fallen man with the gun. "Or you're going to get another. " His fist didn't hurt after gutting the man in the abdomen, he was used to hitting hard things. Even if it did hurt, the pain would fade in minutes because he was used to incredible amounts of it. Least he was able to shake off a lot of his frustrations in that one single punch, and it showed..The man barely moved, and had his hands on his abdomen the entire time. The other man was knocked out by Kale who whacked him good with a pipe, laid motionless on the ground..Whether he was dead or not..No clue. "Let's see..." Chomps began to search the two for any other times. Jazz found the strange book they were carrying which only made him wonder about these two..fellows. Chomps pulled out a knife and a bag of chips. "Alright! More food!"
 
Kale took a few moments after she dropped the pipe to do a little victory dance. Not only had she hit the guy, but he wasn't getting back up! She twirled around, multitasking, since she was feeling tired and the slight breeze from her dancing was very nice. Once she got that out of her system, She wiped her face on her shirt and looked over at Stephen.


"Well, duh! You think I'm going to leave that sitting here?" she asked, smiling a bit. She picked up the crossbow and examined it. The guy had fitted it with a strap, and it had collapsible arms. Convenient. She clicked those closed and slung it over her back like a guitar, then wiggled around a bit to make sure it was secure. Once that was done, she stole his belt and quiver, strapping it on herself.


"I feel so fierce now," she mused, then looked over at Jasmine and started laughing as she saw the cover of the book. "It might help us survive when we start to feel like we're going to kill each other out of boredom!" she pointed out with a grin before looking over to see Chomps pulling out more loot. That stuff was definitely more useful than the book, though it still wasn't a whole lot.


"Take whatever clothes aren't damaged too. Even though we're going South, we can still use them," she said, tugging a large cargo jacket in good shape off of the crossbow guy. His pants were all ripped up and useless, unfortunately.
 
I whipped the horses and brought the carriage back to the group, being as careful as possible not to run anyone over, as much as I wanted to make sure the men who attacked us were down for the count. I jumped down from the carriage and, following Kale's suggestion, pulled the clothing off the men. One of them had a t-shirt with a dragon sprawled across the front that I particularly liked. I glanced up at Jasmine as she held up the book, and let out a light chuckle. "No Jasmine, I don't think that's going to be much help, though we could always try trading it later, there's got to be some lonely sap who's going to need it." I said, and then got up to take a final look around. It was maybe two or three in the morning at the latest, and we still had a long ways to go. "Chomps, toss that in the back with everything else, and lets get out of here. I really don't want to run into anymore muggers, so the sooner we get out of here the better..." I said, and jumped back up to the front seat of the carriage, holding out a hand to Kale so she could get back in. I glanced up to see a few clouds blot out the stars, but perhaps more interesting was the fact that I could see a multitude of stars in the middle of New York City. I shook my head, and turned to Kale. "Where to next?"
 
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She left the disrobing to the experts, which she assumed to be Kale and Stephen, because there was no way in hell Jasmine was going to touch those bodies without knowing where they had been and the last time they had been cleaned. Especially wearing those clothes! They smelled and looked filthy. Jasmine scrunched her nose down at the bodies, her eyes trailing to the base of her own shirt before frowning. Then again, she had been locked in a closet for three days. She must not have given off the most pleasant of aromas and she was sure she hadn't bathed in days. Still, her body was one thing. The bodies of three muggers with a book on masturbation was another thing in itself. Despite what Kale and Stephen told her about the uselessness of the book, she tucked it under her arm regardless.

Knowledge was knowledge, whether it involved genitals or not.

"I can't believe we got attacked so soon. Here I was, figuring that they would lay in wait until we were, I don't know, asleep or something to take our horses and food. Times are crazy..."she murmured. One glance into the sky let her know that it was dangerously late and they were going to have to head into some kind of shelter soon. The fatigue settled in quickly, her eyes drooping once before she forced her head to snap to attention like a shoulder who had just heard the drill sergeant use her full name.

"Find us a suite if you can, Kale. That'd be much nicer than sleeping in some broken warehouse. Who knows how many dust mites are in those things...Probably like a hundred...Probably like a hundred thousand..." And there she was, off to her la-la land of knowledge and border line insanity. Jazz simply sat on the back of Dox, waiting for one of them to lead the way off to either their paradise or their doom. She was hoping on the former.
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