Josh, after Jinny had climed in the truck, shut the door and looked back at Richard. Pausing a moment he wondered if that is what it looked like to the people he knew when he had left just a day ago. Even though they had known Richard for a short time it still grieved Joshua to watch him walking away. Even with all the trouble he went through to get out of that town, Richard came to a dark realization that he was running to and for nothing.

After reflecting Josh walked around the front of the truck and got in, started it and began driving. It took all his willpower to not look back in the mirror as they got further and further, but no matter how much Joshua wanted to he thought it would be disrespectful to watch for something to happen. He thought he would give Richard his peace and solitude.

After a short while of driving Josh looked over to see Jinny curled up in her seat sad for Richard. "so..." he said trying to start a conversation to take her mind off of the subject. There was a prolonged silence as Josh search for something to say. "do you know how to read a map, I am going to need a navigator." Josh rubbed his bandaged wound before continuing. "there is a map in the left side pocket of my pack. You can open the window and grab it if you want."

Jinny looked at Josh when he spoke to her, but said nothing. She grabbed the map from his pack and unfolded it. Then she frowned. "Mm... what do you want me to look for?" Her voice was a bit squeaky. She wasn't looking at him, and seemed still bothered by what she'd seen.

(sorry it's short. Just trying to put something down to keep things moving.)

As Jinny unfolded the map, Josh glanced back and forth between the the road an large crinkled paper. "okay that's the state side. What you are looking at is Idaho, One of the... Um..." Josh stopped thinking for a moment as to whether or not Jinny would understand what he was rambling about. "awh... You can learn that later. What I need you to do is flip it over and look for McCall, that's where we will have to get through to get to the main freeway." Josh explained now keeping his eyes on the road. He was watching for a sign that would tell him what road they were on but didn't expect to see one for a while. "that city is going to be our last obstacle before we are somewhat in the clear."

Jinny's eyes roamed the map. She had it close to her face, and was searching it with something like desperation. Finally, she noted something she recognized. Her lips moved silently as she worked it out. "Here." She pointed at it, her dirty fingertip tapping the paper. "That's it, right?" Honestly, she wasn't sure. Her father had taught her a lot, but map reading hadn't been on it. Obviously he hadn't expected her to be so far out of the city that she'd ever need one...

Josh glanced over to the map where Jinny's finger was pointing. "Umm... No. That's not it." he paused a moment before slowing down and pulling to the side of the road. "let's see." he said leaning towards her across the bench seat. He first spotted McCall and moved Jinny's finger to it. "that is where we are trying to get." he explained. Looking just north of there he found their small house community and town, and put his finger over it. "that is where we came from, which puts us somewhere along this county road." his finger traced the distance of a good length of winding road. josh could tell that Jinny was clueless as to what any of the markings meant on the map and decided that now was better than ever for her to learn. Turning off the car. "how would you like me to show you how to read this?"

Jinny looked at him with a bit of guilt. "Yeah..." She felt rather sad that she didn't know that kind of thing. "But... i-- it's not just the map. It's the words. I don't do good with words..." She looked rather ashamed, her gaze dropping. "But I'm not a dummy! I know numbers really good, I don't even have to count or write 'em down, I just know!"

(sorry it's short. i didn't even realize that this was here)

Josh rubbed his face with his hand when he found out that Jinny couldn't read. He though for a moment the began. "good if you know numbers, then... " he reach back into his pack trying to find a pen. "I know I brought one." he said to no one in particular. As his hand searched his pack he finally found it. "there you are you sneaky devil." he pulled out the pin and gently took the map from Jinny. "okay." he said looking over the map. He began writing on the map and circling various Symbols with numbers. Once finished he crossed off two numbered places, 12 and 11, then handed the map back to Jinny. "there I have numbered the places we have to get through before we are out of the state. Each one counts down the number of places we have left. The cicles are the roads we have to take to get to them, and they are already numbered." he paused. "does that work?"

(that's okay, I have been busy lately.)

Jinny watched him carefully, her dark eyes simply taking everything in. Once he was finished, she held the map and studied it. Her head was slightly tilted to the side, and her eyes were moving back at forth at an almost imperceptible speed. Finally, after a while, she nodded.

"I get it. This is easier than remembering random names of places. They don't even make sense. Daddy said that there used to be... trees, and rivers, and... birds and stuff. It's hard to believe." She shook her head, then looked to him. "So... what kind of way do we want to go? I mean, we could go this way. It's shorter, but there's a bunch of towns in the way." She put her small, grubby finger on the map and traced a fairly direct path. Then she mapped another one, more wide and winding. "Or... we go this way. I think there would be... more random stuff to deal with. Animals and crap, but hopefully less scary people. Hopefully." Her face went slightly pale, and a shiver went through her.

"What do you think, Mr. Josh?"

Josh watched Jinny as she began to take in what he did to the map and smirked when she finally understood what he did. He then followed her finger when she told him there was a short and long way around, but the short way had other towns before they reach the city. Josh thought a moment as he tried to decide which way to take, and looked at the gas gauge. "Most small places will have a smaller chance of people being there. Most of them went to other places or..." he looked again at the towns in their way again. "Nestford." He knew that town. It was one that they never went to when the would scavenge for supplies, but no one ever told him why and they never talked about it. "If we go the long way we run the risk of running out of fuel... If we go the other we run the risk of getting hurt." Josh rubbed the cores hair on his chin. "either way it will take almost two days to get there, and longer if we lose the truck. What do you think navigator: Long though the woods or short through towns?" Josh hated making decisions so he left it up to Jinny.